Photo Courtesy of Shih Tzu Daily
Lavonia was a black and white Shih Tzu-type dog, similar to the one pictured.
By Forum Staff
A Woodside man has been indicted on animal cruelty charges for the senseless killing of a beloved family dog this past August.
Brando Henriquez, 23 is accused of killing the Shih Tzu type dog, belonging to his girlfriend and her family and then disposing of the animal’s remains in a nearby park.
A necropsy revealed that the two and one-half year-old animal had four rib fractures due to blunt force trauma.
The heinous actions by Henriquez were exacerbated by the fact that he initially led his girlfriend and her family members to believe that the dog had run away, offering false hopes that their dog could still be alive.
“The defendant…brutally killed a small helpless dog and …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… they found the dog’s remains….where the defendant disposed of them.”
Henriquez was arraigned late last week before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry S. Kron on an indictment charging him with aggravated cruelty to animals, second-degree criminal mischief, tampering with physical evidence, fourth-degree grand larceny and overdriving, torturing or injuring an animal.
The judge ordered $10,000 bond/$7,000 cash bail and ordered the defendant to return to court on February 8, 2019.
The defendant was subsequently re-arrested last week and charged with fourth-degree tampering with a witness and second-degree criminal contempt in connection with violating the orders of protection issued in the indicted case.
On July 15, Brando’s girlfriend left her Broad Channel residence late on the afternoon, and left Lavonia, her black and white dog, alone in the house. She came home about a half-hour later to find her boyfriend alone in the residence and when she asked him where the dog was he said that he did not know what happened to the dog and suggested that, perhaps, the dog ran out and escaped.
After four days of searching and putting up lost dog posters, the girlfriend’s mother and brother discovered a white plastic garbage bag containing the remains of the dog in a parking lot several blocks from their home.
Police secured video footage from locations along the route, showing Brando leave his girlfriend’s residence with a white plastic bag containing a lump shortly after she had left the residence.
Additional footage depicted him crouching down behind a garbage can as a passerby walks by him and then proceeded to run down the block, still holding the white bag, which his girlfriend recognized as the type and brand she had purchased.
A necropsy was performed by an ASPCA forensic veterinarian, which found that the animal 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.
If convicted, Brando faces up to two years in prison.
