Brutal beating of dog gets man a year in jail
WEST PALM BEACH — An Ormond Beach man was sentenced to a year in jail and four years’ probation Wednesday for animal cruelty and drug charges stemming from a May incident where he savagely beat his girlfriend’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel outside a Palm Springs car dealership.
Jason Snead, 40, received the sentence from Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo, four months after he was caught on camera in the attack, which nearly killed the 3-year-old dog, named Elizabeth Taylor, outside an Off-Lease Only dealership. As part of the plea deal that Assistant State Attorney Judith Arco and Assistant Public Defender Kelsey Bissonnette presented to Caracuzzo, Snead pleaded guilty to one count each of felony cruelty to animals, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Snead will have to turn himself in Monday to begin serving his sentence, but Caracuzzo gave him credit for the nearly four months he already has spent behind bars. He also will have to perform 10 hours a month of community service over the course of his probation and make a $1,000 donation to Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control.
Animal control workers say the 8-pound spaniel was left bloody-eyed and with a fractured skull from the attack, which sparked public outrage.
Palm Springs police began their investigation when an employee at the car dealership on Congress Avenue north of Forest Hill Boulevard called 911 and reported seeing a man kicking, punching and aggressively swinging a small dog around the inside of a white pickup. A witness told police that the dog looked “lifeless” as Snead swung it around by its leash.
“The witness stated he initially didn’t think the dog was real because it was being thrown around and lifted off the ground by the leash,” Officer Richard Carpentier wrote in his report.
When police arrived at the scene, according to arrest reports, Snead told them that he had dropped his girlfriend off to look at a car a short time earlier but said the dog was injured when he had to brake suddenly to avoid hitting another vehicle. Snead said the dog had been sitting on the center front console and slammed into the front windshield. However, although the front passenger windshield was cracked, the bits of dog blood and hair that police found were on the passenger side door jam and door step.
A subsequent search of Snead’s car turned up syringes, a glass pipe and a half-gram of methamphetamine. Managers at Off-Lease Only later gave investigators a copy of surveillance video from that area of the parking lot, which showed Snead kicking and punching the dog before he began ramming the dog’s head into the door step.
The dog was treated by a private veterinarian and recovered from her injuries. Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control Capt. Dave Walesky previously said the agency would not willingly give the dog back to Snead’s girlfriend.
Snead will have to do community service and donate $1,000 to Animal Control.