Dog owner sentenced
Woman gets 6 years in attack by pit bulls that killed neighbor
By John Aguilar
KIOWA - The owner of three pit bulls that turned into "little tanks" and mauled a woman to death was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday.
Despite pleas from one of her five children "not to take my mom away," Jacqueline McCuen, 33, was ordered to report to prison the day after Christmas.
The sentence, which was the maximum allowed under a plea arrangement, came after the judge heard chilling accounts of the animals' rampage.
McCuen and her boyfriend, William Gladney, were charged in the death of Jennifer Brooke, 40, who was killed Nov. 30, 2003, by pit bulls belonging to the couple while tending horses on her nearby property.
Brooke's husband, Bjorn Osmunsen, and a neighbor, Cliff Baker, were injured by the dogs but managed to escape.
The animals were finally subdued when Baker shot the male dog. His 16-year-old son already had shot the two female pit bulls while Baker was trapped in the back of his truck trying to stay out of range of the dogs' snapping jaws.
The dogs were killed by Elbert County deputies.
The prosecution accused McCuen and Gladney, who will likely be tried next month, of not adequately maintaining the fence that was supposed to keep their dogs on their property.
Deputy District Attorney Jason Siers described McCuen's pit bulls as "machines that would not stop" and "little tanks that would not have had any problems pushing through the fence."
Chief Deputy District Attorney John Topolnicki said together the three dogs weighed nearly 230 pounds. He said he'd never seen a killing as gruesome as Brooke's in his 34 years as a prosecutor.
"It's incredible how much gunfire it took to bring these dogs down and dispatch them into death," he said.
The prosecutors said McCuen was keenly aware that her dogs were aggressive and cited several instances leading up to Brooke's death when the dogs had either bitten or threatened neighbors, most notably Diana Nichols, who was attacked by two of McCuen's pit bulls in April 2003 while walking by on the street.
A weeping McCuen apologized to the victims and their families and asked for forgiveness, saying she never suspected that her dogs were aggressive.
Nine-year-old Chelsea McCuen made an emotional appeal to the judge not to "take my mom away" and ran from the courtroom crying on several occasions.
McCuen's lawyer, Michael Andre, told the court that his client had a troubled past that included being molested as a child and having a mother who didn't support her. He asked for "compassion, reconciliation and forgiveness."
But District Judge Angela Arkin said McCuen's past criminal record convinced her that McCuen deserved the maximum sentence called for in her plea agreement.
Arkin also said she didn't believe McCuen wasn't aware that her dogs would attack people.
"These attacks were entirely foreseeable," the judge said.
She ordered McCuen to surrender to the Elbert County Sheriff's Office on Dec. 26.
Brooke's sister, Brenda Kenney, urged the judge to use the incident as an example to other dog owners.
"The message to dog owners that needs to be sent out is that they must be responsible," she said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6722465/
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12/02
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