Chihuahua beaten to death with golf club
Menifee, CA (US)

Incident Date: Thursday, Jan 26, 2012
County: Riverside

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Larry Edward Jaurequi

A day after deputies say her Chihuahua was fatally injured by a neighbor wielding a golf club, the little dog's owner spoke out.

Sitting in her Menifee living room Friday afternoon, Barbara Hitchman, 68, cried as she described a sleepless night waiting to learn the fate of her 8-year-old Lily.

The 6-pound dog died about 5 a.m. Friday at a Murrieta emergency veterinary clinic.

"He's a wicked, wicked man," she said of the neighbor deputies say clobbered the dog.

Larry Edward Jaurequi, 58, was arrested on suspicion of felony animal cruelty after fatally injuring the dog with a blow from a golf club Thursday afternoon, a Riverside County Sheriff's Department news release stated. Jaurequi was released from jail Friday on $5,000 bail.

No one answered the door at Jaurequi's home Friday afternoon.

Lily and Benji, a poodle mix, got loose Thursday from Hitchman's home in a 55-and-older gated community near Antelope and Newport roads, sheriff's officials said. The dogs were running near Summitrose Drive and High Ridge Circle about 2:15 p.m., when Jaurequi came out of his garage and walked into the street carrying a golf club and, for no apparent reason, struck the Chihuahua, said sheriff's spokeswoman Corp. Courtney Donowho.

Witnesses told deputies he struck the dog as if driving a golf ball off its tee, sending the animal flying through the air, a sheriff's news release said. He was preparing to take another swing when witnesses intervened, the release said.

The dog's injuries including a lacerated liver, a broken leg and head trauma, Donowho said. Hitchman arrived in time to see Jaurequi walking away with the golf club.

Donowho said there did not appear to have been any history of the Chihuahua bothering Jaurequi or problems between the two neighbors.

Sitting in her living room Friday with her husband and her surviving dog, Hitchman said she had never seen Jaurequi before.

"I don't know him," she said. "I don't want to know him."

Hitchman said she had been doing work around her house and didn't notice at first that the dogs had escaped.

"I suddenly realized how quiet it was," she said.

When she couldn't find Lily and Benji under the bed or in the backyard, she went looking for them around the neighborhood in her car. Hitchman found them a few blocks away, arriving moments after Lily was struck. Jaurequi was walking away and Lily was sitting "like a statue," her eyes glazed over, Hitchman said.

"I said, 'Lily, Lily, what's wrong?' And she didn't move," Hitchman said.

A man standing nearby told her to take the dog to a veterinarian.

"He said, 'He's just tied into it with a golf club,'" and gestured toward Jaurequi, Hitchman said.

Hitchman said she yelled at Jaurequi.

"I said, 'What kind of a monster are you?' I said, 'You are the most disgusting creature on God's earth!'"

"He said, 'Huh! She tried to bite me!'" Hitchman recalled, shaking her head.

"She's not vicious," Hitchman said. "She was tiny."

As she drove the wounded dog to the animal hospital, Hitchman said, "I kept talking to her. I said, 'Don't die, Lily. Don't die.'"

Hitchman said she learned from witnesses later that Benji, who had been mistreated by a previous owner, ran away when Jaurequi came at the dogs with the golf club. But Lily, who was raised by Hitchman from birth, just sat there, she said.

"She didn't know he was going to hit her," Hitchman said.

"I tell you, he needs help," she said of Jaurequi. "He's sick. He's sick in his mind."

Hitchman choked back tears as she described the fawn-colored Chihuahua.

"She was the sweetest little thing," Hitchman said, "She was like my baby. She was such a good little girl. I'd say, 'It's beddie-time now.' And she'd go right to bed. She was a little angel."

References

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