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Case #709 Rating: 3.3 out of 5
Bag put on puppy's head resulting in death
Vancouver, WA (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Jan 30, 2003
County: Clark
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Rusty R. Mapes
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
Rusty R. Mapes, 30, allegedly put a plastic bag over a puppy's head and secured it with a rubber band. The 7-week-old puppy, Tigger, suffocated.
On Thursday, Vancouver police officers were called to a home in the Rosemere neighborhood. They found Mapes sitting in the garage with the dead puppy.
He explained that after Tigger defecated in the house he wanted to teach her a lesson, so he slipped a plastic bag over her head. About five minutes later, he took the bag off because he could hear the puppy trying to get oxygen. He said the puppy collapsed and died.
Mapes, who is unemployed, has a prior conviction for second-degree burglary.
Case UpdatesThe Rosemere neighborhood man was placed in protective custody to serve a six-month sentence for killing his family's puppy.
The judge also ordered that Mapes undergo mental health treatment for animal abuse, not own other pets and serve a year in community custody after release. He gave Mapes credit for seven days he spent in jail after his arrest last year.
Harris closed his remarks with a comment: Several defendants who have come before him as serial killers started abusing animals at an early age, including child-killer Westley Allan Dodd and Keith H. Jesperson, the "Happy Face Killer." They lacked respect for life, whether an animal's or human's, that Mapes may learn in treatment, he said.
Deputy Prosecutor Alan Harvey had asked that Mapes receive the maximum sentence of a year in jail. Putting a plastic bag over a 7-week-old puppy's head, affixing it with a rubber band and watching her gasp for air was "cold and particularly heartless."
But Michael Brace, Mapes' defense attorney, argued for a three-month jail term.
Mapes readily admits his actions caused the death of Tigger, but denies that was his intent, Brace said. He maintains that he wanted to teach the puppy a lesson after she defecated inside the house.
Brace said Mapes expected to spend some time in jail. "Jail time will be difficult because inmates treat this crime differently," he said.
Read More: OregonLive | | Update posted on Feb 26, 2004 - 8:41AM |
Placing a plastic bag over a puppy's head, then securing the bag with a rubber band and leaving the bag on for five minutes, "clearly has an intended consequence," a judge ruled Monday in convicting a Vancouver man of first-degree animal cruelty.
Mapes faces up to one year in the Clark County Jail for the death of his 7-week-old Australian shepherd mix, and will be sentenced Thursday by Superior Court Judge Robert Harris.
Clark County deputy prosecutor Alan Harvey said he will ask for a sentence of at least six months for Mapes. Harvey called four witnesses Monday morning three police officers and an animal control officer in a brief trial made shorter by the fact that there was no jury.
Defense attorney Michael Brace said his client requested a bench trial because of the concern that emotions over a dead puppy could cloud jurors' judgment.
"A jury sees a dead puppy and they're going to potentially ignore the intricacies of what the law says," Brace said.
Brace argued Mapes had no intent to kill Tigger, and therefore should not be found guilty of first-degree animal cruelty.
"It was really a lapse of judgment," Brace said. He said there was no evidence Mapes was angry at Tigger, who had defecated on the carpet shortly before her death.
Mapes just wanted to teach the puppy a lesson, Brace said.
Read more: The Columbian | | Update posted on Jan 28, 2004 - 10:30AM |
References- The Columbian - February 1, 2003; Page c3; Section: Clark County/region
- OregonLive
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