Once, just once, it looks like someone may get what they deserve for
animal cruelty at it's worst.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_7222029?nclick_check=1

Man faces third strike in dog's death
FELONY CHARGE FILED IN SAVAGE KILLING
By Brandon Bailey
Mercury News
Article Launched: 10/19/2007 01:30:29 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge
Authorities say cocker spaniel was killed by its owner's boyfriend

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Alex Castro didn't like his girlfriend's dog. The 10-year-old cocker
spaniel named Copper would bark and whine, neighbors told police, and
the 46-year-old Milpitas man responded by kicking the dog, choking it
and throwing it into the air.

Late one night, a woman in his trailer park said she saw Castro carrying
the dog's lifeless body by the neck. "I finally did it," Castro told
another neighbor, who relayed the statement to authorities, according to
court records. "I kicked him and he was yelping so loud I had to kill
him, so I took my hammer and put a hole in his head."

What happened to Copper has outraged pet lovers and drawn the attention
of a nationwide animal-rights group. What happens to Castro may prompt a
debate: Prosecutors have invoked the state's "three strikes, you're out"
law because Castro has prior convictions for violent crimes. He now
faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

The sometime construction worker is scheduled to appear in court today
on a felony charge of animal cruelty on suspicion of killing the dog
July 31.

"People in the community are clearly going to have an emotional response
to this kind of case," said Castro's attorney, deputy public defender
Ross McMahon. "The real question, however, is: Do we as a society feel
that this alleged conduct merits a life sentence?"

A judge will decide the penalty if Castro is convicted. But prosecutors
in the Santa Clara County district attorney's office
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said the crime and Castro's prior record meet their criteria for seeking
a "three strikes" sentence.

Castro's record includes felony convictions, in separate cases, for
assault with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in serious injury. He
served three years in prison and a series of shorter stints for six
parole violations from 1999 to 2004.

Court records detailing those cases were not immediately available. But
Castro's girlfriend, Joanie Gonzalez, said he told her one case stemmed
from a bar brawl in which he used a metal pipe to crack the skull of a
man fighting with Castro's father. The other supposedly occurred when
Castro severely choked a man who made unwelcome comments to a former
girlfriend.

Gonzalez, 47, said she's horrified by what happened to Copper, the dog
she raised since it was a puppy. Still, she said, she isn't sure Castro
should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

"I loved my dog like my kids," she said, "but that's a long time."

Gonzalez said she met Castro in 2005 and thought he was turning his life
around. But after her neighbors found the dog's body and called police,
Gonzalez said she told Castro she didn't want anything more to do with
him.

"It's hard because I cared about him," she added. "We had planned to
spend our life together."

A local animal-welfare official, without endorsing a specific penalty,
said the dog's death should be treated as a serious crime.

"It's been clearly documented that with this kind of thing, there's a
very strong correlation with future or current violence against people,"
said Jon Cicirelli, deputy director for San Jose's Animal Care &
Services agency, which works under contract for the city of Milpitas and
helped police investigate the case.

Gonzalez declined to say if Castro was abusive to her, but police said
she told them he was verbally abusive and that she had "physical
confrontations" with him last year.

The case first drew attention when the weekly Milpitas Post published a
story about the dog's death. The activist group People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals posted a summary on its Web site and urged readers
to contact District Attorney Dolores Carr.

"This strikes me as one of the more cowardly attacks that I've read
about," said Martin Mersereau, a PETA spokesman. "We're talking about an
elderly, defenseless animal who had his head bashed in."

Though prosecutors received e-mails from people who saw the PETA
posting, Assistant District Attorney David Tomkins said that didn't
affect their decision.

As with every "three strikes" case filed by his office, Tomkins said a
committee of senior prosecutors reviewed Castro's file. He said the
decision to charge Castro with a felony, which made him eligible for a
"three strikes" sentence because of his record, was consistent with
similar cases of animal abuse.

The committee looked for any extenuating circumstances that would
justify dropping one or both "strikes," Tomkins said. "We decided there
wasn't."

Prosecutors can revise the charges against Castro if they get new
information, Tomkins noted. "Perhaps there's a side of him that we're
not aware of, some type of mitigating circumstances that the defense
will make us aware of, and if they do we'll certainly consider that."

Castro is being held in lieu of $950,000 bail in the Santa Clara County
Jail.

I hope he gets the maximum possible sentence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Life without cats would be only marginally worth living."
-TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie.

How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven.
- Robert Heinlein

Life is very difficult. Once you understand that, life becomes easier.
-Buddha