Hunter charged in shooting of dog
Warrant: Man thought he saw a coyote
Vernon police arrested a man who shot and killed a neighbor’s dog after mistaking it for a coyote, an arrest warrant released Wednesday says.
Peter Martinelli, 53, of Bolton Road, was charged with illegal discharge of a firearm.
Martinelli told police he was hunting from a tree stand on his 12-acre property on Nov. 3 at about 4:30 p.m. With the scope on his .30-06 rifle, Martinelli said he saw a deer moving about 50 yards away, but chose not to shoot, the warrant said.
Then he saw what he thought was a coyote trailing the small buck, telling police “he would have bet his life it was a coyote,” according to the warrant. He fired and about 10 minutes later found the dead animal, police said.
“He stated he was completely shocked and unnerved to see that it was a dog,” the warrant says.
The dead dog was Karo, an 8-year-old German shepherd owned by Belleann Maffessoli and her husband. Karo was outside playing on Nov. 3 at about 4:15 p.m., Maffessoli said in an earlier interview with the Courant, when she heard a gunshot. Karo always returns home, but the dog could not be found anywhere on the 40 acres that she and her husband own or nearby, she said.
Searching for her dog, Maffessoli went to Martinelli’s home several houses down from hers on Nov. 4.
“Martinelli stated that he didn’t really know how to handle the situation right away so he did not inform (Maffessoli) about what happened and did not contact her after she left,” the warrant says.
The next day, she found her beloved pet behind Martinelli’s house, and her husband confronted Martinelli, the warrant says. After Martinelli admitted shooting Karo by accident, Maffessoli’s husband, who is labeled “Witness 2 in the warrant, told him, “You’re a dead man walking,” Martinelli told police, according to the warrant. Martinelli he did not want to press charges for threatening, police said.
Police found that Martinelli had an up-to-date hunting license and was the legal owner of the rifle.