A jury in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday found Alphonso McCloud, 27, and his wife, Staynelle Miles-McCloud, 31, guilty of felony charges of dangerous dog attack causing serious bodily injuries following four hours of deliberations.
During the punishment phase that followed the delivery of the guilty verdicts, the jurors sentenced McCloud to four years in prison and his wife to 10 years of probation for the vicious March 2017 dog attack that left 73-year-old Doris Mixon Smith severely maimed.
In her impassioned victim impact statement delivered after the sentencing, Mixon Smith ordered the McClouds to turn their attention to her, reported MySanAntonio.com.
"Look at me!" she shouted at the pair. "I'm missing an arm. God gave me two."
The victim accused McCloud, a decorated US Army veteran, of showing no remorse after his pit bull, Bully, darted out of his yard on March 6, 2017, and clamped down on her left arm as she was gardening, eventually tearing the limb out of its socket just below the elbow.
The animal also ripped the skin from the right side of the woman's face from the eyebrow to the chin.
‘As a Christian, I have to forgive you, but tell, me, how can I forget?’ she said. ‘I can no longer tie shoes, fasten my earrings, or dress myself.’
Mixon Smith lamented that in the wake of the mauling, she can no longer mow her own lawn, or even hold her pet dog in her arms.
When given a chance to speak, Alphonso McCloud defended himself, complaining that he has been unfairly portrayed on social media and in the news as a 'bad guy.'
'I've been blown up for my country,' McCloud said, referring to his military service. 'I am not a criminal.'
District Judge Joey Contreras raised the defendants’ bond amounts to $250,000 each and had them remanded to jail after learning from the prosecution that on the morning of the sentencing, two other pit bulls were photographed in the McClouds’ yard, in violation of an earlier court order that had prohibited them from owning any more dogs.
'The arrogance of the defendants is mind-boggling,' the judge told the court.
In her testimony last week, Mixon Smith described in graphic detail the horrifying dog attack.
The woman said she was gardening in her front yard when her neighbor's pit bull headed toward her with 'his mouth wide open', according to The Houston Chronicle.
'I said, 'Please help me, oh God, please help me,'' the 73-year-old victim recalled.
'He came at me as I was bent over with a pot in my hand,' Mixon Smith said of the March 6 attack.
'I was just fighting for my life, kicking and screaming, trying to get to my door to get my gun. He never turned me loose.'
Kenneth Baker, the couple's defense lawyer, told the jury last week that the pet was usually 'a good family dog' and never had a history of harming humans in the past.
Jurors were also shown surveillance footage of the five-minute canine assault, which was captured on video with a door bell camera, in addition to desperate 911 calls placed by neighbors.
In the video, the McClouds' young son is seen struggling to get the 70-pound Bully off of Mixon Smith and ordering the animal, 'Let go! Let go'
Once police arrive, the child begs the officers, 'Don't shoot my dog,' as they fire three rounds at the pit bull, leaving it twitching on the ground.
The jurors were also played a frantic 911 call placed by a neighbor, who is heard telling the dispatcher, 'There’s a pit bull attacking a lady outside! Come help this lady right now! Right now!'
Another neighbor also dialed 911, saying on the call, 'There lady is bleeding, the bone is showing! Oh, my God, someone get here , please!'
Mixon Smith suffered such catastrophic injuries that doctors were forced to remove her left arm just below the elbow. The skin and flesh was also torn from the eyebrow to the chin of her face.
'She tried to make it into her house, but that dog latched onto her left arm and it tore muscle and bone, and sinew such that the EMT’s, when they got there, clearly stated that it amputated her arm,' state prosecutor Daryl Harris told the jury during opening remarks in the case.
When police arrived, they shot the dog three times in order to stop the gory assault.
Earlier:
No comments:
Post a Comment