- A 21-year-old man who was caught on video twice hurling his pit bull into a ravine in the City Terrace area and subsequently charged in an unrelated residential burglary was sentenced today to five years in state prison.
Andres Spancky Raya pleaded no contest Aug. 9 to a felony animal cruelty charge and residential burglary. He received a two-year sentence for animal cruelty, to be served concurrently with the five-year burglary sentence.
Surveillance video captured Raya throwing the dog -- then known as Mary Jane -- into a ravine in the 1300 block of Luella Drive last Sept. 26, then returning to the cul de sac two days later and throwing the canine into the ravine again, according to Deputy District Attorney Alexandra Campbell.
Authorities had asked for the public's help last October in finding a man seen on surveillance video throwing the dog into the ravine after it jumped in the open window of the motorist's car.
"The video's just heartbreaking to see how this man treated this animal in throwing him over this ravine on two different occasions," the prosecutor told reporters shortly after Raya was charged.
The dog -- who was subsequently renamed Hera Grrl -- has since been adopted, Campbell said.
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cardboardguru13 on September 8th, 2017 at 20:42 UTC »
This is depressing news. He's not doing any real time for animal cruelty. He's doing 5 years for residential burglary, and he gets to 'serve' the 2 years for cruelty at the same time (concurrently).
Most counties in the US do not take animal cruelty seriously. Two years really is about as severe as you'll find, and the judge goes soft by not making him serve those years consecutively (what would be a total of 7 years). Seven years would assure he goes to a state prison, instead of serving his time in the county jail, or worse, on probation.
eelnodnarb on September 8th, 2017 at 16:01 UTC »
BAXTER!!!!
Periah17 on September 8th, 2017 at 14:34 UTC »
It bothers me that he only got two years for felony animal cruelty. And that he's serving it concurrently with the five for burglary. The sentence should be doubly that and served non concurrently. Five years is not enough.