Couple Guilty in Son's Death by Dog
www.timesdispatch.com
May 16, 2006, SUFFOLK, VIRGINIA -- A Suffolk couple whose 2-year-old son was fatally mauled by their pit-bull mix in their home pleaded guilty yesterday to involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse.
Heather Frango and James Jonathan Martin had been scheduled to be tried on murder charges next month in the Oct. 3 death of their son, Jonathan. Now, each faces up to 20 years in prison. Their sentencing is set for August.
Suffolk Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Marie Walls said yesterday that prosecutors accepted the pleas because the reduced charges "fit the facts and circumstances of the case."
Authorities said the 2-year-old wandered downstairs in the family's rural home in southern Suffolk on the morning of his death, intending to use the bathroom and get breakfast.
But he encountered the family's two pit-bull-mix dogs, which had spent a rare night in the downstairs portion of the house after normally being chained outside. One of the dogs -- most likely a male named "Ox," Walls said attacked and killed the boy while his parents slept upstairs. Walls said the couple's marijuana use contributed to their lack of supervision of their son and the dogs.
Frango, 25, and Martin, 30, each pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a possible penalty of 10 years in prison; and one count of child abuse resulting in a serious injury, a felony also punishable by up to 10 years.
The pleas averted what could have been the first case in Virginia of a dog owner going on trial on a murder charge for a pet's actions.
The pleas came five months after a jury in Spotsylvania County convicted a woman of involuntary manslaughter for allowing her three pit bulls to run at large outdoors, where they fatally mauled an 82-year-old woman and her pet Shih Tzu. The dog owner was sentenced to three years in prison.
Spotsylvania prosecutors said at the time that they could find no previous instance in Virginia of a person charged with murder in a dog-mauling case. In 2002, a San Francisco couple was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after their dogs fatally mauled a woman who lived in their building.
