Photo Courtesy of Flickr/Robert Nunnally
Henriquez has been charged with killing Lavonia, a black-and-white Shih Tzu-type dog, similar to the pictured pup.
By Forum Staff
A Queens man who claimed his girlfriend’s dog escaped while he was in her house, is now facing charges of aggravated cruelty to animals for the senseless killing of the Shih Tzu-type dog.
The defendant, Brando Henriquez, 23, of Woodside, was arraigned on Friday, August 3, before Queens Criminal Court Judge Ushir Pandit Durant on charges of violating Agriculture and Marketing Law 26-353 (aggravated cruelty to animals and overdriving, torturing and injuring animals).
According to the criminal complaint, Henriquez’s girlfriend left her Broad Channel residence late on the afternoon of July 15, leaving her dog, Lavonia, alone in the single-family residence.
When she returned after approximately a half-hour, Henriquez was in the residence and claimed he didn’t know what happened to the dog and suggested that the dog ran out and escaped.
On July 19, following several days of searching and putting up lost dog posters, the mother and brother of the defendant’s girlfriend discovered the remains of Lavonia in a white plastic garbage bag and in a parking lot several blocks east of her owner’s residence.
Police investigating the incident secured video camera footage from several locations along the route, which showed Henriquez leaving his girlfriend’s residence with a white plastic bag containing a lump shortly after she had left. Additional surveillance footage depicted Henriquez crouching down behind a garbage can as a passerby walks by him and then proceeding to run down the block in an easterly direction, still holding the white bag, which his girlfriend recognized as the type and brand she had purchased.
The dog’s owner received two voicemails on July 20 and 21 from Henriquez in which he said, “I’m so sorry, I’m sorry” and “I’m sorry about the dog.”
On August 2, 2018, Henriquez called his mother and told her, that the dog pooped and that he performed CPR on the dog in the bathtub.
A necropsy performed by an ASPCA forensic veterinarian, revealed that the two and one half year-old dog was in an advanced state of decomposition consistent with being deceased for at least several days and that the dog had four rib fractures due to blunt force trauma. There was no evidence of healing to the fractures, indicating that they occurred shortly before or after death.
Bail was set at $10,000 bond/$7,000 cash and the defendant’s next court appearance is August 22, 2018. If convicted, Henriquez faces up to two years in prison.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant is accused of aggravated cruelty to animals for brutally killing a small helpless dog and heartlessly offering false hope to his girlfriend and family by making them think that the dog had just run away. For the next four days she and family members searched the area and put up missing dog posters in the belief that they would find the dog alive, sadly, only to find the dog’s remains where the defendant allegedly disposed of them. Such acts of aggression toward defenseless animals cannot – and will not – be tolerated in Queens County.”
