Embattled Kennel Owner Back in Jail After Failing to Surrender Assault Rifle

Ruby Mae Brown, the embattled owner of Kelly’s Pet Hotel, was jailed once again Thursday for failing to turn her assault rifle over to police.

Brown was to have turned the weapon over to police by 10:30 a.m., but did not. Instead, she appeared in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge E. Mac Amos Jr., apparently intending to tell the judge she had sold the weapon.

She didn’t receive a hearing before the judge, so she left the courthouse and headed for the Mission Hills office of her attorney, Fred Corbin. Police followed, and Brown was stopped on the street, handcuffed and arrested.

Pleaded With Judge

When she was brought into court later in the day, Brown said she had sold the AR-15 assault rifle Wednesday night to a woman named Tammy Sutton, whom she met on Thorn Street, and only wanted to give the judge the receipt to prove she no longer had the gun.

Deputy City Atty. Fritz Ortlieb said police had told him that Sutton’s reported address on Main Street did not exist.

Brown, weeping, pleaded with the judge to set her free for two hours to go get the gun, but Amos refused. The judge set bail at $10,000, and scheduled a review hearing for this morning to see if Sutton’s identity or the whereabouts of the gun could be determined.

Brown, 61, is set to go to trial Tuesday on 283 criminal counts ranging from animal abuse to failure to keep a sanitary kennel. She is also embroiled in administrative proceedings with the county Department of Animal Control, which is attempting to revoke her kennel license.

In court last week for the county hearing, Brown said, “If they take my license, I will kill.” She also said she had purchased an assault rifle two days earlier.

During a court appearance Monday for a postponement of the criminal trial, Amos ordered Brown to turn over the weapon. When she refused, she was taken into custody.

Brown was released from the Las Colinas women’s jail Wednesday morning, on the condition that she turn the gun over to police within 24 hours. Brown said her attorney told her that presenting proof of a sale would suffice.

Didn’t Give Advice

Attorney Corbin, however, said he did not give Brown any such advice. “She did talk to me about it, and I never told her to take a receipt or to sell it to anybody,” Corbin said Thursday afternoon.

“I just told her not to carry the gun down to the court because somebody might suspect she was going to hurt somebody, and she might get shot doing it.”

Corbin said he did advise Brown to go to the judge and ask him how she should arrange for the surrender of the gun. “I suggested she could turn it over to me, or they could send the marshals down to get it from her,” he said.

Brown did not want to turn the gun over to the police because she figured they would keep it, Corbin said. “Apparently, (the police) came in several times to the kennel, according to her, for the purpose of accompanying the animal-control people for inspections, and they seized her weapons and she never got them back.”