Wisconsin: Andrew Collette was supposed to install some speakers at their house. Instead, say police, he beat their little dog to death

WISCONSIN -- A Portage man has been charged with felony mistreatment of animals, accused of crippling his neighbors’ dog and causing injuries that required the animal to be euthanized.

Andrew Collette, 38, who has been held in the Columbia County Jail since Feb. 18, was charged with the single felony count on Thursday, an offense that if he is convicted could result in up to 3 1/2 years in prison.

The case started with a call from a Lodi veterinarian who told officers that she had been treating an 8 ½ pound Papillon mix who had to be put down after suffering what appeared to be extensive blunt-force trauma.

The dog’s owner told officers that earlier that day she had been home, where her neighbor, Collette, had been working on a set of speakers for her and her husband. Collette had told her that he needed some extra tools, so she and a friend went to the store to get him what he needed.

Her husband and their two kids, 5 and 6 years old, were in the house but after the kids had been loud and irritating Collette, who allegedly yelled at them at one point, the father took the kids to play at the park.

When the two women returned home with supplies, there was something noticeably wrong, according to the owner, saying that Pepe would normally run to greet her at the door.

Collette reportedly said something about the dog going out the window.

She began searching the house when, she told police, Collette yelled that he had found the dog, underneath a bed in her daughter's bedroom.

The two women ran upstairs from the basement and saw Pepe under a bed with a bloody eye and not acting right.

"Her eye was bulged out and she didn't even acknowledge me. There was nothing."

The owner’s friend moved the dog and told officers she “felt like a bag of bones.”

Rose took Pepe to a veterinarian, who was forced to put him down due to substantial injuries, including a fractured pelvis, head trauma and a deflated lung, she said.

When the officer asked Collette what happened, he said that Pepe had been jumping up and down putting her feet against the window, when he heard glass break and saw the dog run out of the room.

The veterinarian told officers that the dog’s injuries did not match with what would be expected from a severe fall, and there were no cuts or glass fragments found to suggest the incident involved broken glass.

Officers spoke with Collette’s then-girlfriend about the incident, who said Collette had told her that the dog had jumped through the window, which she didn’t believe. She told officers that she is “an animal rescue person,” and had yelled at Collette for hitting a cat.

Portage police took Collette into custody that evening on suspicion of violation of probation and mistreatment of an animal.

ANDREW COLLETTE: CAREER CRIMINAL

Collette was released from Columbia Correctional Institution on June 2, 2015. This was the most recent stint in jail or prison, with others including Racing Correctional Institution, Waupun Correctional Institution and Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel.

According to online court records Collette’s first felony convictions were in 1996 for arson and battery by a prisoner.

In 2005 he would again be convicted of battery by prisoners and expelling a bodily substance, then in 2009 convicted of substantial battery for head butting someone at a bar and in a parallel case, fourth-degree sexual assault.

COLLETTE WAS ON PROBATION AT THE TIME HE'S ACCUSED OF KILLING PEPE BY BEATING HIM TO DEATH

At the time of his arrest, Collette was under extended supervision with a discharge date of June 7, 2020.

New bond conditions and future hearing dates are pending an initial appearance with a Columbia County Circuit Court judge.

They need to do a necropsy on Pepe to see if Collette raped him before beating him to death. They say that Robert Farmer guy in California was raping the cats before torturing them to death.

(WiscNews - March 9, 2017)