Case Snapshot
Case ID: 11364
Classification: Fighting
Animal: dog (pit-bull)
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Sunday, Apr 29, 2007

County: Escambia

Charges: Misdemeanor, Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 1 files available

Alleged: Robrico Newberry

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

Over the weekend, several dogs in Pensacola were seized because authorities believe they were used for fighting.

The dog's eyes tell many stories of brutality. Cut legs, bitten ears and bruised bodies. Director of the Escambia County Animal Regulation and Control says those are all indications of dog fighting. Director Bruce Rova says, "They're going head to head and they'll try to bite any part they can grab onto, the ears, neck and a lot of the time it was the face." The animals were seized after a deputy saw a few of the dogs chained up and bleeding in this abandoned lot.

The next day, officials responded to a house after they received a call about more battered animals. Homeowner Joyce Jenkins says, "They want to put me in jail for something didn't do." The tearful homeowner says she had no idea the dogs were even in her yard. Jenkins says, "I was asleep. My friend woke me up. He looked out the window and spotted some dogs back there in the backyard, that's when I called the law." She called 911 and animal control showed up. Rova adds, "There there were 3 dogs that had been involved actively in some fighting that day probably even that evening." Two of the dogs were severely injured and had to be taken immediately to the clinic. One still has visable wounds on him. When he was picked up, he was bleeding all over his body and his jaw was broken.

Jenkins is upset. She says she would never hurt animals, and regardless of that fact, her landlord doesn't allow them on the property. She claims she later found out, the dogs actually belonged to her friend's son. Jenkins thinks she was set up, and adds, "I want them to catch that boy 'cause that was wrong." Now she wants justice for herself as well as the dogs who have been fought and abused.

Officials are investigating to see if the two cases are connected. Charges of animal cruelty and dog fighting are pending for several suspects.

If you have information on this case, please contact:
Escambia County Sheriff's Dept


Case Updates

A man wanted for animal cruelty is in custody.

Robrico Newberry, 18, of the 2700 block of Lakeview Avenue was in Escambia County Jail on Saturday facing seven counts of cruelty to animals and five counts of fighting/baiting animals.

He was at a home in the 2200 block of North G Street last Sunday when a deputy found seven pit bulls, five of which are believed to have been involved in fighting.

There was no food or water on the property within the dogs' reach, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

Newberry's bond was set at $60,000, according to jail records.
Source: Pensacola News-Journal - May 6, 2007
Update posted on May 6, 2007 - 4:52PM 
Escambia County deputies were searching Wednesday for a man suspected of fighting pit bulls.

Robrico Newberry, 18, of Pensacola is wanted on five felony counts of dogfighting. He also is wanted on five felony and two misdemeanor animal-cruelty charges.

Newberry was at a home in the 2200 block of North G Street on Sunday when a deputy found seven pits bulls, including five believed to have been involved in fighting, said Sgt. Mike Ward, spokesman for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.

The five dogs believed to have been involved in fighting had scars. The other dogs didn't.

"I also observed there was no food or water present on the property within ... the dogs' reach," Deputy Michael Gilmore, who found the dogs, wrote in a Sheriff's Office report.

Photographs were taken of the dogs, but they didn't turn out, Ward said.

Deputies returned to G Street later Sunday to take pictures again, and three of the dogs were gone, Ward said.

Joyce Jenkins, 38, of Archer Avenue said a friend of hers happened to look out a window Sunday and found three dogs tied up in Jenkins' backyard.

Jenkins called the Sheriff's Office.

Jenkins said her sons know Newberry, but she doesn't know why the dogs were left in her backyard.

"I can't even have pets," Jenkins said. "We rent. I go by the rules on that."

The dogs are being cared for at the county animal shelter.

"They are resting fine ... certainly better than when they came in Sunday," said Bruce Rova, director of Escambia County Animal Regulation and Control. "They have shown no great aggression here."

Rova said there is no way that he knows of to retrain dogs trained to be aggressive and fight.

"We don't adopt any animals we believe have been involved in fighting," Rova said. "I couldn't live with myself if the right signal causes it to turn on a child or maim or kill a child."
Source: Pensacola News-Journal - May 3, 2007
Update posted on May 3, 2007 - 5:34AM 

References

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