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Arizona / West

Killer of Chihuahua draws 4 1/2-year sentence

The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.22.2006
PRESCOTT — A Prescott man who killed his wife's Chihuahua after she threatened to leave him has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.
A jury convicted Timothy Gonzalez, 28, earlier this month of felony animal cruelty and criminal impersonation and a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.
Before his sentencing Wednesday, Gonzalez asked the judge for leniency and asked his wife to forgive him.
"I'm sorry for what happened and I'm sorry for what I did," Gonzalez said. "I didn't mean to kill Eddy."
He said that he couldn't stand the thought that his wife didn't love him and that she might be leaving him for good.
The charges were more about domestic violence than animal cruelty, prosecutor Ethan Wolfinger said at trial.
According to police reports, Gonzalez raised the couple's Chihuahua, "Eddy" over his head and threw him to the ground as his wife got in a car to leave their home, then flung the dog to the ground a second time. As his wife was trying to leave, Gonzalez threw the dog onto the hood of her car, where it hit the hood and the windshield, and rolled off onto the ground.
Judge William Kiger of Yavapai County Superior Court sentenced Gonzalez to the prison term, saying probation would be inappropriate even if it were available.
He must serve 80 percent of the sentence, more than three years.
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