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FREDERICKSBURG––The first murder-by-dog case filed in Virginia
was on March 24, 2005 set for an April 20 preliminary hearing in Spotsylvania
County Circuit Court, three days after a grand jury indicted Deanna Hilda
Large, 36, of Partlow, on one felony count of involuntary manslaughter,
carrying a possible 10-year prison sentence, and three misdemeanor counts
of allowing dangerous dogs to run loose.
Large was briefly jailed but was released on $10,000 bond after police
determined that her three unneutered male pit bulls on March 8, 2005 killed
distant neighbor Dorothy Sullivan, 82, and Sullivan’s Shih Tzu in
Sullivan’s front yard.
The first sheriff’s deputy to arrive, after an emergency call by
Sullivan’s daughter, reportedly shot two of the pit bulls at the
scene. The third was captured and euthanized later. Local police shot
two more pit bulls outside Large’s home two days later when they
charged as the officers interviewed her.
“The [five] dogs were suspected of killing other pets in the neighborhood,
including a German shepherd [on March 1, 2005] and a kitten,” wrote
Emily Battle and Keith Epps of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. “Sources
said that although Large was questioned in those cases, there was not
enough evidence to file charges.”
The Large dogs apparently also skirmished with the dogs of a nearby pit
bull breeder, who at least once fired a gun to break up the fighting,
Battle and Epps reported. “Large is no stranger to the court system,”
added Epps and Free Lance-Star colleague Bill Freehling. “She was
convicted of aggravated sexual battery in 1998 for having sex in a vehicle
with a 12-year-old boy,” identified as a friend of one of her sons.
She was sentenced to three years in prison with all but four months suspended,
according to court records. That same year, she was convicted of a felony
charge of leaving the scene of an accident. She got a $250 fine and a
suspended 30-day jail sentence in that case.”
Other
cases
In
a parallel but less publicized case, Billy Earl Marberry, 54, of Lanett,
Alabama, was charged with manslaughter on February 16, 2005 for the February
4 fatal mauling of Barbara J. Pilkington, 70. Pilkington was killed on
a sidewalk near her home by a loose pit bull who allegedly belonged to
Marberry.
Charged with criminally negligent homicide for the November 2003 fatal
mauling of horse rescuer Jennifer Brooke, 40, by three pit bulls in Elbert
County, Colorado, William Lawrence Gladney, 48, is still at large. Missing
a scheduled court appearance in the case on January 18, 2005, Gladney
was additionally named in an arrest warrant in connection with the October
23, 2004 shooting death of Marlo Earl Johnson, 35, at an Adams County
motel.
Gladney’s wife, Jacqueline McCuen, 33, was in December 2004 sentenced
to serve six years in prison for the Brooke killing. McCuen had an extensive
prior criminal record including convictions in Iowa for prostitution and
forgery.
Manslaughter charges against Roger Allen Hansen, 36, of Lucinda, Pennsylvania,
were dropped on February 16, 2005, after Hansen accepted a three-month
jail sentence for allowing his three Rottweilers to run at large. The
dogs escaped from their kennel and killed his three-year-old niece, Lily
Krajewski, in March 2003. Hansen’s mother, Kathleen Josephine Hansen,
62, who was also grandmother of the victim, was acquitted of involuntary
manslaughter in January 2005, but served six days in jail and was fined
$5,000 for negligent conduct.
In Appleton, Wisconsin, Calumet County Circuit Judge Don Poppy on March
15, 2005 sentenced Jenilee Barlament, 19, to serve seven months in jail
plus five months suspended, four years on probation, and 250 hours of
community service for allowing her pit bull to run loose on May 17, 2004.
The dog inflicted severe head and facial injuries on Maika A. Thao, 8,
as she walked home from school. Police told Barlament to have the dog
euthanized after he twice attacked members of her family, but Barlament
ignored the order.
Anastasia Melissa Richardson, 27, of Aloha, Oregon, on February 15, 2005
drew 18 months in prison for allowing her two pit bulls to escape and
severely maul Joshua Pia Perez, 7, as well as Kathleen Imel, 51. Imel
saved Perez by leaping out of her car and throwing herself on top of him.
Richardson “previously has been convicted of resisting arrest, harassment
and several drug crimes, and was ordered not to have a dangerous dog so
a parole officer could visit safely,” wrote Holly Danks of the Portland
Oregonian.
Richardson admitted that her dogs were vicious in a television news interview,
but Circuit Judge Mark Gardner refused to admit the interview as evidence,
and dismissed a charge of causing physical injury through extreme indifference
to the value of human life.
