Cecille Short.Photo: Facebook
An Oklahoma jury has acquitted a manwhose two dogs fatally mauledhis 82-year-old neighbor on her daily morning walk in 2017.
Burks had been on trial after his two American Bully dogs fatally mauled his 82-year-old neighbor, Cecille Short, on April 6, 2017.
“We are heartbroken for the family of Cecille Short. This has been a horrific and preventable tragedy to that family. We don’t understand the verdict of the jury but we respect it,” District Attorney David Prater said,The Oklahomanreports.
Short was on her daily walk with her small dog named Taylor when she was attacked in Oklahoma City,KFORreports. She was a great-grandmother of four when she died, according toher obituary.
“She loved to stay active, loved her neighbors, and especially loved the OKC Thunder, often texting her son-in-law and her friend Trudie during games,” the obituary states. “She touched many lives and will be greatly missed.”
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“This particular crime is a crime of negligence,” Assistant District Attorney Kelly Collins said, according to theOklahoman. “This is about as bad as it gets.”
While the defense did not deny that the dogs killed Short, it did argue that no one could have seen the attack coming.
“They were bought from a reputable breeder,” Burks' attorney Ed Blau said, KFOR reports. “They were well-trained. We had witness after witness testify they didn’t think something like this could happen.”
One defense witnesses described how she let her grandson play with the dogs and had seen Burks work on fixing the fence multiple times.
“He was always trying to keep them corralled,” Michelle Huddleston said, according to theOklahoman. “I never had any kind of fear of anything from them.”
Burks faced up to four years in prison if convicted.
“My client [has] waited four years for this day, and this was an extraordinarily tough case,” Blau said afterwards, KFOR reports. “Not easy on anybody. I appreciate the jury. I appreciate them listening to the evidence, looking at the law and coming to the decision they did.”
source: people.com
