Man sentenced for killing brother's basset hound with an ax

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Man sentenced for killing brother's basset hound with an ax
12:13 PM, December 10, 2008
A judge sentenced a local man to nearly a year in Los Angeles County jail after he pleaded no contest to killing his brother’s basset hound with an ax.

Rudy Fernandez, 37, of Los Angeles, was sentenced today to 294 days in county jail and ordered to undergo a mental-health evaluation after pleading no contest last month to felony animal cruelty. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne H. Egerton also ordered Fernandez to attend 48 sessions of a program on animal cruelty and not to take care of any animal during the five years he will spend on probation.

(Read the rest after the jump)

--Andrew Blankstein

Photo: LAT file

Fernandez had faced a maximum of four years in state prison if convicted. The sentence stems from an attack on the bassett hound named "Samantha" that was reported to Los Angeles police in March.

The basset hound belonged to his brother, who was in jail at the time of the alleged attack, police said. Fernandez tried to strangle the dog with his hands before pinning her to the ground with his feet and pressing a wood fence post to her neck. When that failed, prosecutors said, he delivered fatal blows to her skull with the ax. Fernandez tried to discard the animal, but police found its bloodied carcass in a trash bin after receiving a call from a tipster.