Co-owner of dogs released on bond
Woman faces felony charges in her pit bulls’ fatal attack of an elderly Air Force veteran
A San Antonio woman whose dogs attacked and killed an elderly Air Force veteran on the city’s West Side has been released from the Bexar County jail on bond.
Abilene Schnieder, 31, was released after posting bonds totaling $125,000 on two felony charges: dangerous dog attack causing death, and injury to an elderly person. Pretrial hearings on the charges are scheduled for April 4 and April 11, court records show.
Schnieder and her husband, Christian Alexander Moreno, 31, were arrested last month after their dogs escaped from their yard in the 2800 block of Depla Street in San Antonio and attacked an elderly couple who were visiting a friend who lived next door.
Two of the dogs attacked and killed Air Force veteran Ramon Najera Jr., 81, of Leon Valley, while he was on the nextdoor neighbor’s property on Feb. 24. His wife, Juanita “Janie” Najera, 74, also was bitten by the animals. So were two other people who tried to stop the mauling.
Moreno was arrested on the same felony charges as his wife.
He also posted bonds totaling $125,000 on charges related to the dog attack, as well as an additional $14,000 bond for an unrelated misdemeanor theft charge, court records show. Schnieder was released Tuesday, Moreno on Saturday.
Moreno’s pretrial hearing is set for March 28.
The Najeras had gone to the home of a seamstress who lives next door to the dog-owning couple because Ramon Najera needed a pair of pants hemmed so he could start a new job as a security guard. However, the seamstress wasn’t home.
Moreno and Schnieder’s dogs — American Staffordshire terriers, a breed of pit bull — burst out of their gated yard and besieged the elderly couple. Witnesses tried to stop the attack, to no avail.
Ramon Najera was mauled so viciously that the animals tore a dialysis shunt from his body.
A video recorded by someone who drove up next to the bloody scene to try to stop the attack captured 53 seconds of
the incident. The driver repeatedly sounded her car horn, trying to scare off the dogs.
“Help him! Oh, my gosh!” the woman is heard screaming on the video. She then told the driver: “Reverse, reverse!”
Both dogs involved in the attack, as well as a third dog that was running loose at the time of the incident, were euthanized. All three animals belonged to Moreno and Schnieder.
Najera’s widow has filed a lawsuit against Moreno and Schnieder, as well as a relative who owns the Depla Street home where they live, Carlos Moreno. Janie Najera is represented by San Antonio attorneys Thomas J. Henry and L. Brent Farney in that civil action, which seeks more than $1 million in damages.
The dogs escaped through a hole in a fence, according to an affidavit supporting Schnieder’s arrest.
“There is a small stake in the center of the hole where an attempt to repair the fence has been made,” stated the affidavit, written by a San Antonio Police Department detective.
The dogs weren’t wearing collars or harnesses, the detective wrote.
Various dogs belonging to Christian Moreno and Schnieder had previously attacked at least two people in the neighborhood on separate occasions. Animal Care Services previously received multiple reports about the dogs’ violent behavior, according to the arrest affidavit.
During an investigation into the attack on Najera, police discovered that Schnieder had been recorded having conversations with her husband about how dangerous the dogs had become, the affidavit stated.
Police received tips from people who said Schnieder and her husband had been breeding the dogs and using meat to train them to be aggressive, the affidavit said.
Schnieder “failed to take the measures necessary to properly secure her dogs and was equally responsible for doing so,” the arrest affidavit stated.
In the three years that Moreno and Schnieder lived on Depla Street, San Antonio’s 911 system received 114 calls complaining about the family, while the city’s 311 phone system received 42 calls, City Manager Erik Walsh has said.