‘Apology not enough’ Qns. ma blasts killer of her daughter’s dog; sick beau gets 6 months
A Queens man who killed his girlfriend’s dog, then pretended to look for the pup with her relatives, will spend six months behind bars for the heinous crime — a disappointing sentence for the woman’s mother, who says her family is still “heartbroken, devastated and traumatized.”
“His apology is not enough for me,” said Lisa Eastzer as she wiped away tears outside the courtroom after the sentencing. “All he cares about is himself. It’s traumatized us.”
Brando Henriquez, 25, of Woodside, says he was high on drugs when he killed little Lavonia, a black-and-white shih tzu, last July in his girlfriend’s Broad Channel home.
Prosecutors say he beat 2year-old Lavonia so badly, four of the dog’s ribs cracked. When his girlfriend, Stephanie, came home half an hour later, Henriquez lied and said the pooch had run away.
After four days of searching, the woman’s mom and brother found the dog’s decomposing body in a white, plastic bag dumped in a parking lot several blocks away, authorities said.
“I can’t even look at a dog without thinking about their dog and how much of a piece of s—t I was,” Henriquez told Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron during the sentencing Tuesday. “Whatever happened, it definitely wasn’t a planned thing. I was really, really, really into drugs then. I was a f——-g junkie. I hope that someday they can forgive me.”
Video from July 15 shows Henriquez leaving his girlfriend’s home with a lumpy, white plastic bag, hiding behind a garbage can to avoid passersby, then running toward the location where Lavonia’s body was found.
Eastzer, in a Facebook post after Lavonia’s body was ound, hanked neighbors and others who oined the search.
“Everyhing was and is truly appreciated and was amazing and overwhelming,” she wrote. “Kids on bikes. Neighbors in cars yelling for my girl. Putting flyers up. Sharing posts about my girl over and over! Sharing sites to help find her. Advice … I can’t begin to thank everyone enough!”
Eastzer was anything but sympathetic to her beloved pup’s killer in court Tuesday.
“Every day I walk out of my home, I can see the spot where you discarded my beautiful girl; leaving her for five hot days; deceiving us for five long days,” Eastzer wrote in a statement read by Assistant District Attorney Nicoletta Caferri.
“Stop blaming your path, your parents and drugs for your shortcomings,” Caferri read from Eastzer’s statement, as Eastzer sobbed loudly in the audience. “Your actions and decisions are just that — yours. The one person who truly cared, loved and believed in you was my daughter, Stephanie. You have traumatized her beyond words. I hope the silence from my daughter is deafening to you for the rest of your life.”
Eastzer’s daughter chose not to attend the sentencing.
Henriquez pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty and tampering with evidence last Thursday. He also pleaded guilty to criminal contempt for contacting Stephanie despite an order of protection. He will have to register as an animal abuser within five days of entering jail and will be forbidden to own animals for 10 years.