Camarillo man sentenced to 16 months for torching family dog
By Raul Hernandez
Posted March 6, 2013

'A judge Wednesday sentenced a Camarillo man to 16 months in prison for setting his family’s basset hound on fire in an animal cruelty case that drew national attention.

The sentence touched off anger among some animal rights activists and others who wanted Andrew Delgado to be sentenced to three years in prison.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Young said he considered the severity of the crime. Buddy, a 3-year-old basset hound, was covered in lighter fluid and set on fire.

“It’s difficult to comprehend,” the judge said.

Young denied probation to Delgado, 18, but didn’t give him the maximum sentence of three years behind bars for arson.

Young said he had to consider other factors such as age and criminal history, adding that Delgado took responsibility for his crime early in the proceedings.

In January, Delgado pleaded no contest to two felonies: animal cruelty and arson of property.

The crime occurred about 3:20 a.m. Oct. 27 in a ravine near the 1000 block of Mesa Drive in the Camarillo Heights area.

A neighbor saw a fire and called the Fire Department. Emergency personnel found a dog with severe burns, and the animal later died.

Young said he had received an 854-page petition with 102,072 signatures collected from around the world by a group called Justice for Mary. The petition signers requested a harsh sentence.

Justice for Mary is an animal rights group, Young said. He added that he also got letters from animal rights supporters and from Delgado’s relatives, friends and neighbors.

Prosecutor Richard Simon said in an interview that the animal cruelty charge alone wouldn’t have sent Delgado to prison.

“The judge sentenced him on the arson of property because that’s the one where you are state prison-eligible,” Simon said.

Simon said the District Attorney’s Office had requested a three-year prison sentence.

“I thought it should have been higher, but I understand the judge’s reasoning,” he said. “I think it was basically due to the fact that he pleaded guilty before having a preliminary hearing. I just think the sentencing still is too light for what was done in this case.”

He said Delgado must serve 80 percent of the arson sentence before he is eligible for parole.

During the sentencing, Simon told Young that Delgado still says what he did was an accidental result of playing with fire. He said Delgado also blames narcotics use.

“This is a personality problem that goes way beyond drug use,” Simon said.

Delgado’s lawyer, Rebekah Mathis of the Public Defender’s Office, told Young that her client needed treatment for psychological and drug problems, asking that he be given probation with a significant jail sentence.

“You’ve got to take the emotion out of it,” she said.

“I don’t know if Mr. Delgado can be fixed, but we need to try,” she added.

Young also said Delgado was arrested earlier in 2012 on suspicion of receiving stolen property, being under the influence and vandalism, all misdemeanors.

Young said he hoped Delgado will take advantage of counseling programs in prison.

“There are other issues other than the drug abuse that propelled your conduct,” Young told Delgado.

Representatives of Basset Hound Rescue of Southern California were in court during the sentencing.

Melissa Ruthenbeck-Chiaramonte, the group’s president, said in an interview that she was glad Delgado was going to prison but that the sentence for animal cruelty should be much higher.

“It should be eight years or more,” she said.

Ruthenbeck-Chiaramonte said animal rights groups and activists are going to lobby state lawmakers to make the punishment for animal cruelty harsher.

Outside the courtroom, a tearful Robert Gorecki said the sentence doesn’t protect animals’ rights.

“I would like to see the law change to a closer relation to what the charge would be against a human,” he said. “A living being has the same rights as you or I whether it’s a dog or people. It’s killing a living being. Murder is murder whether you murder a person, whether you murder a dog or whether you murder a baby.”'
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/mar/06/camarillo-man-sentenced-to-16-months-for-family/