SIMI VALLEY : Man Gets 3 Years in Torture Attack
A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for attacking and torturing a Simi Valley contractor who he believed stole money from his house.
Jeffrey Shepard, 31, of North Hills, was sentenced in San Fernando Superior Court after a plea agreement under which Shepard agreed to plead no contest to a charge of assault with a stun gun, according to prosecutors.
Shepard changed his plea from not guilty just before the start of his trial in May after another man who had participated in the attack agreed to testify against Shepard.
According to court records, Shepard accused Ronald Henry, 24, a window installer who had been working at Shepard’s house last September, of stealing money. Shepard stripped Henry’s clothes off, handcuffed him, shocked him with a stun gun, plucked his hair and eyebrows and threw him into a pen with six Rottweiler puppies.
Henry escaped and ran down the street as Shepard was preparing to tar and feather him, prosecutors said. Police officers en route to another call in the area saw Shepard and another man chasing Henry and arrested them.
The other man, David Lowen, 24, of Northridge, was sentenced last month to three years probation after pleading no contest to a charge of false imprisonment.
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