No Middle Ground in Dog Beating : Courts: Jury hears divergent views of fatal attack that followed boy’s mauling in Huntington Beach. One paints a man bent on vigilante-style justice. The other depicts a parent traumatized beyond reason.

A Huntington Beach man who used a baseball bat to kill a dog that mauled his toddler testified Thursday that he intended no harm when he went in search of the animal.

“It was never my intention to do anything wrong,” said Alan Roberts, a 30-year-old roofer on trial for misdemeanor animal cruelty.

After more than two months of controversy surrounding the incident, the criminal case against Roberts was all but wrapped up in a single day in Orange County Municipal Court. Through opening statements and testimony, including that of the dog’s owner, jurors were offered two divergent pictures of Roberts during the July 30 incident: as a man bent on vigilante-style justice and a parent traumatized beyond reason.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Monday.

Roberts, who pleaded not guilty, admitted that he fatally clubbed the Akita mix an hour after the attack on his 19-month-old son, Andrew, outside a Huntington Beach coffeehouse. But Roberts maintained he was not rational at the time and did not plan to hurt the animal.

The prosecutor, calling the mauling a “serious and sad tragedy,” said Roberts compounded matters by returning later with a baseball bat instead of contacting animal-control officials.

“What’s really sad is that, instead of going and doing what a reasonable parent would do . . . he decided to take the law into his own hands,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Tammy Spurgeon said during her opening statement to jurors. “That’s why this case is so sad, ladies and gentlemen, because he did take the law into his own hands.”

Though the charge against Roberts is a misdemeanor, the case has attracted intense attention and ignited noisy public debates over whether Roberts should be punished. Roberts and the dog’s owner, April Wyld, have sued each other and the coffeehouse’s owner. The media presence was heavier at Roberts’ trial than for even high-profile Orange County murder cases.

Defense attorney Todd A. Landgren, facing a clutch of television cameras outside court during a lunch break, noted the volatility of the case: “There are no views in the middle,” he said.

There is little dispute on either side about the circumstances.

Roberts, his fiancee, Stacey Morton, and their son Andrew stopped off at the Java Jungle coffeehouse during a walk so that Roberts could use the bathroom. He emerged to hear Morton’s screams for help and spotted a bushy dog standing over the child, who was bleeding heavily from his face, Roberts testified. His account was corroborated by a witness.

“He was screaming. He was screaming like I never heard him scream before,” Roberts said, flanked by giant photographs of the child’s injured face. The boy eventually received more than 60 stitches to repair the injuries to his nose and forehead.

An hour after taking the boy to the hospital, Roberts said he decided to find the dog. He stopped at his house to grab a full-size Dodgers souvenir baseball bat. A teen-ager at the coffeehouse led him to Wyld’s home nearby.

Roberts said he did not plan to hurt the dog, but took the bat because he feared the dog might attack. A Huntington Beach police officer, however, testified that Roberts said he planned to kill the dog.

Wyld said the 55-pound Akita mix named Kaya was hooked by its leash in the back yard when Robert approached. Wyld said she was told of the biting attack but didn’t call police or animal control officials because she was contacting hospitals in search of the victim.

As he strode to the dog, Roberts said, “My kid’s dead,” Wyld testified.

“I said, ‘Please don’t hurt my dog,” Wyld said. She said she unhooked the dog just as Robert delivered the first blow. Wyld said that she ran inside, frightened, as Roberts continued to club the animal an estimated 15 times.

Wyld said her boyfriend took the severely injured pet to a veterinarian to be euthanized.

Roberts, who moved his family from their home temporarily because of the uproar surrounding the case, said he felt shame after the clubbing.

“I was an emotional wreck. It’s not my normal nature,” he said.