According to Lt. Jerry Brewer with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded Tuesday to a domestic dispute call between Lorraine Marie Villanueva, 35, and her boyfriend.
Villanueva's boyfriend was taken into custody on domestic-related charges, but later bonded out. Brewer said the boyfriend asked for deputies to escort him back to the home, where he gathered his belongings and left.
Later that night, deputies responded to the same home in reference to a cruelty to animals call. Upon arrival a man ran up to a deputy and said Villanueva was inside the home and was killing a dog.
The deputy entered the home and saw Villanueva next to a female English Bulldog and a pool of blood around the dog. The dog had reportedly been stabbed several times and had a cut on her neck.
The deputy immediately placed Villanueva into custody. Her boyfriend, the owner of the dog, arrived to the scene a short time later and took the dog to an emergency animal hospital.
Villanueva was then taken to the New Hanover County Jail on one count of felony cruelty to animals.
Deputies later received a call from another man who lived at the home who said he found his dog, a female pit bull, wrapped in a blanket in a creek behind the home with more than 100 stab wounds.
After learning of this, deputies charged Villanueva with an additional count of felony cruelty to animals. She was given a $100,000 bond.
"Susie's Law," which passed in 2010, increased the penalties for anyone caught maliciously abusing, torturing or killing an animal. The violation became a Class H felony, punishable by ten years in prison or a fine, or both.
(WECT - Feb 14, 2016)
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