CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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Case #14056 Rating: 1.7 out of 5
Dog beaten with concrete block, strangled
Grand Rapids, MI (US)Incident Date: Friday, Jul 14, 2006
County: Kent
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Jesse Allen Fritz
SaraLee Earegood was hoping the man who brutally killed her 9-year-old son's dog would get at least a couple years behind bars.
But as a first-time offender with credit for time already served and myriad mental health issues, 20-year-old Jesse Allen Fritz will spend about a month longer in jail.
"It's such a let-down," Earegood said Thursday after the court sentencing for Fritz, who pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and torture after he killed the family's 9-month-old Rottweiler-German shepherd mix, "Bear," two years ago.
Authorities say he bludgeoned the dog with a chunk of concrete, then strangled it before throwing it into a pond at 60th Street SW and South Division Avenue.
Fritz initially claimed he killed the dog at Earegood's request, then later said he'd misunderstood what she said.
Earegood said she chose the wrong person to take her dog for a walk. And for the past two years, her family has had to endure seeing Fritz in their Cutlerville neighborhood, sometimes even walking a dog.
Earegood told Kent County Circuit Judge Dennis Leiber that Fritz offered the family a puppy if they would drop the charges.
"It breaks my heart to think he has another animal," she said.
Leiber sentenced Fritz according to recommendations provided by the probation department. They took into account Fritz's lack of past criminal record and his mental health issues, which have delayed the case several times as he was evaluated by psychiatrists.
His official sentence is 120 days in jail, but Fritz already has been behind bars for more than three months in connection with the charge, leaving him about a month left to serve. Fritz also was ordered by the court to receive mental health counseling and take his prescription medication.
Leiber put the maximum term of probation on Fritz, meaning if Fritz violates the order any time in the next five years, Leiber could re-sentence him.
Earegood wanted the judge to prohibit Fritz from owning animals in the future, but Leiber said he didn't think he had the latitude to do that. He did advise Fritz that he should not own an animal until he has gotten a handle on his other issues.
The judges admonition did little to ease Earegood's disappointment.
"The last two years have been hell," she said. "I was hoping he would get two years in jail so we could have two years of peace."
Earegood said she and her fiance plan to marry this summer near the pond where Bear's body was dumped.
"We loved that dog," she said. References« MI State Animal Cruelty Map
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