The answering machine tape played in the courtroom on Aug 16, broadcasting an ugly string of curses and threats. Marcia Lundy bowed her head and wept. She told the court the speaker was the man she'd been dating for a year. He'd been charged with killing her dog.
Salvatore DeGiorgio of Harris is on trial in Sullivan County Court before Judge Frank LaBuda on felony counts of aggravated animal cruelty and witness intimidation. He has opted for a nonjury trial.
At 1 a.m. on March 4, hours after state police arrested DeGiorgio, the calls to Lundy's Rockland County home started.
The voice rages in expletive-laced language about hunting Lundy down, shooting her and killing one of her friends. He used a racial epithet against the friend, who is black � and is a former lieutenant colonel in the Army.
State Trooper Eric Salamone testified that DeGiorgio told him the dog was spoiled, and it was coming between him and his relationship with Lundy.
Muffin, an 18-pound long-haired Dachshund, was Lundy's baby. She'd had the dog for 12 years, she told Assistant District Attorney Rob Zangla. Muffin followed her everywhere. When she cooked, the dog sat in the kitchen. When she watched TV, the dog sat with her. Muffin was protective of Lundy and protective of his space.
She even took Muffin along when she spent weekends at DeGiorgio's house on Rapp Road in Harris.
On Feb. 27, as Lundy lay on the living room couch, DeGiorgio came inside from shoveling snow. Muffin growled at him.
"When he started kicking, he said 'you're not gonna growl at me,'" Lundy testified. "Then he was choking and choking it."
She said DeGiorgio, holding the dog around its neck, walked to the basement door. He banged the dog's head against the door, opened the door and started down the steps. Then, she said, he threw Muffin down the stairs to the concrete floor.
"I ran down the steps, and I was just touching (Muffin's) stomach. I said, 'You killed him. You killed my baby.'"
She said DeGiorgio told her the dog was in shock and drove her to look for a veterinarian.
A vet in Middletown told her the dog was dead.
The next day, she went home. She went to police on March 2.
After hearing the tape and reading DeGiorgio's statement, Judge Frank LaBuda revoked DeGiorgio's $22,500 bail, sending him to jail until a mental health evaluation is completed. Case UpdatesFor killing his girlfriend's dog in front of her and then threatening to kill her, Salvatore DeGiorgio got the maximum sentence yesterday: 3.5 to four years in prison.
On Feb. 27, DeGiorgio and his then-girlfriend, Marcia Lundy, were at his Harris home. As always, Lundy had brought her 12-year-old long-haired Dachshund, Muffin, with her.
At some point, Muffin growled at DeGiorgio.
Raging, he grabbed the dog, choked it, hit its head on a door and tossed it down the cellar stairs. The dog died.
Lundy filed a complaint and state police arrested DeGiorgio, 54, on cruelty to animal charges. Then DeGiorgio phoned Lundy's home eight times in a half an hour, leaving obscenity-laced threats on her answering machine.
"Muffin was more than a pet. He was a family member who unconditionally loved me, as I did him," Lundy said yesterday in Sullivan County Court. She spoke about Muffin playing fetch, about the little sounds the dog made that were almost like words, about the dog's loyalty.
"You love to kill," she told DeGiorgio, who smirked and smiled as she spoke. "I don't know why you have so much anger inside of you. I hope that one day, you repent for killing Muffin and for threatening me."
Assistant District Attorney Rob Zangla said DeGiorgio refuses to take responsibility for what he did. In a presentencing interview, DeGiorgio told a probation officer that Muffin accidentally died in his hands.
DeGiorgio's lawyer, Raynard Ozman, argued that aggravated cruelty wasn't proven, and that his client deserved probation.
Judge Frank LaBuda said the trial evidence left no doubt: DeGiorgio is guilty, and these types of crime must be punished and deterred.
"History, science, psychiatry have shown us: those who intentionally inflict harm on the animal kingdom are just as likely to commit harm on the human side of species," LaBuda said. "Society has a right to protect its helpless, whether in humankind or not."
DeGiorgio was convicted Aug. 18 of aggravated animal cruelty and third-degree intimidating a witness, felonies; and misdemeanor criminal contempt and aggravated harassment.
On Nov 3, 2005, LaBuda sentenced DeGiorgio to the 3.5 to four years in prison, running the maximum sentences for the two felonies consecutively. | Source: Record-Online - Nov 4, 2005
Update posted on Nov 8, 2005 - 11:55AM |
His sisters wept as Salvatore DeGiorgio was found guilty of killing his girlfriend's dog and then threatening to kill her after she pressed charges.
But the man's former girlfriend, Marcia Lundy, said this isn't over for her.
"I still have a lot to deal with," she said, after court.
On Feb. 27, she was visiting DeGiorgio at his home in Harris. As always, she had brought along her beloved longhaired dachshund, Muffin. DeGiorgio, 53, came inside from shoveling snow and lost his temper: The dog had been barking at his cat.
Lundy testified at his trial last month that DeGiorgio, in a rage, grabbed Muffin by the neck, choking the dog, and slammed its head against a wall as he headed for the basement steps.
Lundy said DeGiorgio threw the little dog. Muffin died shortly afterward.
Days later, after Lundy pressed animal cruelty charges, DeGiorgio called her home repeatedly between 1 and 1:30 a.m., threatening her.
For that, he was charged with third-degree witness intimidation, a felony, and aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor. When he refused to surrender his gun collection at a town justice's behest, he was charged with criminal contempt, a misdemeanor.
Yesterday, Sullivan County Court Judge Frank LaBuda found DeGiorgio guilty on all counts.
"Mr. DeGiorgio acted intentionally and deliberately, and acted without concern for being a responsible citizen," LaBuda said. "That dog was killed with hatred and anger and malice aforethought."
When Lundy had the courage to step up and report the crime, LaBuda said, DeGiorgio threatened to hunt her down and kill her.
DeGiorgio, who had been free on $22,500 bail until the middle of his nonjury trial, has been jailed since the day the answering-machine tape that recorded his threats was played in court.
His lawyers, Raynard Ozman and Gerard Carey, argued that he should be released until sentencing. A mental-health evaluation ordered by LaBuda was apparently deemed insufficient to prove DeGiorgio wasn't a threat, Ozman said.
Assistant District Attorney Rob Zangla argued that DeGiorgio should stay in custody, as he could be a flight risk.
DeGiorgio faces up to 3 years in prison.
Lundy said she cries when she sees someone with a dog. "I don't sleep," she said. "I just think about it all the time." | Source: Record Online - Sept 15, 2005
Update posted on Sep 19, 2005 - 10:19PM |
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