Williamson County Sheriff's officials have accused an Austin man of torturing and killing a friend's dog earlier this week partly by binding the Pekingese with three types of rope and dragging it, according to an arrest affidavit.
Barry Lee Sandler, 60, has been charged with cruelty to a nonlivestock animal -- torture, a felony punishable by up to two years in a state jail. He was also charged with possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest, according to court records.
Sandler was arrested Sunday and was released the next day after posting $20,000 in bail for all three charges, court records show.
According to the affidavit, constable's office deputy Denise Lozano was rollerblading near Sandler's home, in the 12000 block of Shasta Lane just east of U.S. 183 in North Austin, when she saw him dragging the dog. She later told officials that he kept dragging the dog after the Pekingese had gone limp.
"Barry, you have killed that dog!" she said, according to the affidavit. "You know that's wrong." "I know," Sandler replied, the affidavit said.
An examination of the dog at an animal hospital later revealed that the dog had likely been kicked, causing "major internal lacerations to the dog's liver," the affidavit said.
Williamson County Sheriff's Detective Robert Kee said in the affidavit that Sandler told him he, "tied the ropes around the dog after the dog allegedly bit him."
Kee also said Sandler told him he'd dragged the dog by the ropes, sometimes while running, for 30 minutes to an hour and that he'd sat or stepped on the dog at least four times within the previous four days.
Sandler also told Kee that he'd jerked the rope "with enough force that could have broken the dog's neck," the affidavit said.
Case Updates
A Williamson County man will soon serve six months in prison for torturing a dog. This week, a district judge accepted Barry Sandler's , 56, plea of guilt to the March felony animal cruelty charge.
Grainy surveillance footage from a neighbor's house across the street on a quiet north Austin street reveals some of the last moments of a little dog's life.
"This dog was not just kicked," said Sgt. John Foster with the Williamson County Sheriff's Office. "This dog was brutally beaten."
The nine-pound Pekingese had wandered over into the neighbor's yard, straying from Sandler, who was supposed to be caring for it.
"That was the sweetest little dog," said Debbie Stiles, the neighbor. "You'd pick it up, and it would just cuddle up to you."
Suddenly, Sandler enters the video frame, approaching the dog from behind, and swipes it up off the lawn. Despite the dog's high-pitched squealing, Sandler storms away with the animal in tow, saying, "Bad dog! Bad dog!" as he returns to his home across the street.
Not long after, the dog was dead - its body found soaking wet and wrapped in three ropes, obviously brutalized before it died.
"A passerby knew him and said something to the effect of 'You just killed that dog,'" Foster said. "And he said, 'Yeah, I know.'"
Court documents say he beat, kicked, and stepped on the dog. Then he tied ropes around the animal's body and dragged it to death. Sandler's explanation: "We didn't get along."
"I'm sure this person has a lot of issues, but you don't take out your issues on a nine-pound dog," Foster said.
We do not know if Sandler has any pets. If he moves after serving his sentence, his new neighbors would have no idea of his past.
But what if it were easier to keep track of animal abusers? The state already does it for almost 65,000 sex offenders.
Their names, photos, addresses, and details of the crimes are all available to the public through an online database - a sex offender registry. Simply type in your own address to find offenders who live around you.
Some state lawmakers want to create a similar system to protect animals. After one felony, any animal abuser 17 or older would become part of this new registry for a decade, required to report to local law enforcement each year, or every three months for repeat offenders.
How difficult would it be to put a person like Sandler on the animal abuse registry? Lawmakers want the Texas Department of Public Safety to maintain the database like it does for sex offenders. They plan to file such legislation in the weeks before the upcoming session begins January 11.
That registry costs as much as $1.4 million dollars a year, which could be a tough sell with the state's current budget deficit - now thought to be more than $20 billion.
But knowing who is adopting an animal or even living next door to one could save lives - something Austin animal cruelty detectives say is definitely worth the cost. Would the registry bill pass? Read
Sandler's official sentencing is set for January 20 at 1:30 p.m. The judge will also consider two pending charges for possession of a controlled substance at that time.
Surveillance video from a neighbor's home in north Austin is shedding new light on alleged abuse that led to a dog's death.
A neighbor of Barry Lee Sandler, 56, shared the video with KXAN Austin News that shows the 9-lb Pekingese loose in the neighborhood and being scolded by Sandler just one day before the little dog was brutalized and killed with ropes, according to police.
Sandler was arrested Tuesday on felony animal cruelty charges, which can result in 10 years in prison. He is also charged with possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest.
Sandler is now out of jail, and his attorney, Adam Reposa (who goes by the name "Bulletproof" on his Texas State Bar bio page ), says Sandler has a huge hole on his hand from a dog bite. Sandler was nice enough to take care of the dog as a favor to a friend, Reposa said - adding that he's always known Sandler to be a fine, upstanding citizen.
Police beg to differ.
"I'm sure this person has a lot of issues, but you don't take out your issues on a 9-pound dog," said Sgt. John Foster of the Williamson County Sheriff's office. "This dog was not just kicked. This dog was brutally beaten."
The video shows Sandler scolding the little dog - "Bad dog! Bad dog!" - and later shows police responding to his home and arresting him after a passer-by witnessed Sandler dragging the dog's body along the street.
Officers say Sandler beat, kicked, stepped on and dragged the dog with ropes until it was dead. While he told police that he and the dog "didn't get along" and that the Pekingese had bitten him (inciting him to tie the dog up with three ropes), neighbors who regularly encountered the animal described it as sweet and cuddly.
"That was the sweetest little dog. You'd pick it up, and it would just cuddle up to you. It tried to get in my car with me," said Debbie Stiles. "But we didn't know anything was going on so we gave it back."
Neighbors say they would let the little dog sleep on their front porch from time to time because he repeatedly escaped from Sandler's home. He was no harm, they said. The neighbors weren't on who the dog belonged to, or what its name was.
""We took care of him for a few hours," Stiles said. "Then neighbors started knocking, going, 'Where's the dog? Where's the dog?' "
Authorities say they found Sandler with methamphetamines in his pocket when they confronted him about the dog lying dead - battered and tied up with three ropes - in his garage earlier this week.
Throughout the past several days, Sandler to police he had "accidentally" sat on and stepped on the dog, realizing it was hurt but not taking it to the vet, court documents indicate.
After tying it up, he also walked or ran with the dog dragging behind him on ropes for up to an hour, "jerking" the rope hard enough to break its neck, according to court documents.
He allegedly watched the dog bounce "one to two feet off the ground after collisions with rocks and other objects" while dragging him with the ropes.
On Tuesday, an off-duty deputy told officers she witnessed Sander dragging the dog's body as she was Rollerblading in the area.
"She observed (Sandler) bent over at the waist, pulling ropes that were tied to the dog's body with great force," according to court documents. "The defendant continued to use force even when the dog went limp."
The ropes were tied around its neck and chest, the deputy reported. Records indicate she confronted Sandler about it when it happened: "Barry, you have killed that dog. You know that is wrong."
"I know," he reportedly responded.
He later told police that he and the dog "did not get along," and that he "did not have the dog by choice."
Investigators found damage to the dog's liver - a result they said was from kicking - and bruising on its lungs from the rope. They also said its tongue had been bitten, indicating that it had struggled before it died.
When police arrived, they said they found the dog in Sandler's garage, dead and still tied up.
Sandler reportedly had a knife in his pocket, which police said he kept trying to retrieve after they repeatedly told him not to. Police also said they found a film cannister with methamphetamines inside when they searched him.
Possession of a controlled substance are typically filed as state jail felonies if the amount found is under a gram, and punishable by six months to two years in prison - but vary according to the type of drug, the amount and the case details.
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