Man gets 42 months in beating death of dog
After apologizing to a Lake Villa woman for beating her dog to death with his hands, a Wisconsin man pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of animal torture and will spend 42 months in an Illinois prison.
Martin Keller, 37, of Kenosha, Wis., told Lake County Judge James Booras he had anger issues he couldn't control. Keller agreed to plead guilty to put closure on the day he killed Dartanian, a mixed breed dog in Lake Villa.
"The dog sniffed at me and tried to bite me, and I just snapped," he said after Booras asked why he killed the dog. "I am truly sorry for everything I have done."
Keller had been charged with an additional count of aggravated animal cruelty and was facing 5 years in prison if found guilty at trial. That charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said.
Also under the agreement, Keller will receive 385 days of credit for time served in Wisconsin, and he will be placed on one year of parole after he is released from prison, Booras said. Keller must serve at least 50 percent of the prison sentence before being eligible for parole, Assistant State's Attorney Ben Dillon said.
Keller was indicted in December for hitting Dartanian multiple times on his body on April 2, 2013. The dog died shortly after the beating, authorities said, and the cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma.
The charges against Keller were delayed because he was serving prison time in Wisconsin on an unrelated charge.
Dog owner Susan Beadle testified she was stunned when she discovered the dog beaten to death when she came home from work. "I picked him up and cradled him in my arms," she said. Beadle added she is haunted by what Keller later said when he admitted to beating the dog. "He said 'I hit him and just couldn't stop hitting him.'"