Miami Puppy Killer Faces Up to 10 Years in Prison

A Miami man with a long police record faces the longest sentence of his criminal career--up to 10 years--after a jury on Wednesday found him guilty of fatally injuring a puppy by twice slamming it to the pavement to silence its barking.

In an emotional case that received national attention when it was covered by Court TV, Allan Laboy, 37, was convicted of felony animal abuse for torturing the 8-week-old golden labrador.

Prosecutor Susan Dannelly, a major-crimes prosecutor who volunteered to try the case, asked Dade County Circuit Judge Stanford Blake to sentence Laboy as a habitual offender. Already serving a 4 1/2-year sentence for violating probation on an earlier burglary conviction, Laboy could receive an additional 10 years when sentenced Dec. 19.

“You don’t have to be an animal lover to have respect for another living thing,” Dannelly, a board member of a local animal adoption agency, told the six-member jury.

The message of the verdict, Dannelly said later, was that “we live in a society where we’re all dependent on each other for care. He violated that trust.”

In a city rife with violent crime and assorted mayhem, the so-called “puppy killing” attracted an unusual amount of attention. Not only did one of Dade County’s top murder case specialists ask to prosecute Laboy, but Dannelly called as a witness a veterinarian who offered a detailed explanation of X-rays showing the dog’s lacerated liver and blood-filled lungs.

Alejandro A. Zamora, Laboy’s court-appointed attorney, did not deny that in August, 1994, his client picked the puppy up by its front legs, swung it over his head and slammed it to the pavement outside his home after its barking interrupted his sleep. A police officer who happened to be sitting in a car outside Laboy’s house testified that he witnessed the assault.

“I was in total disbelief,” said Metro-Dade Officer Eduardo Garcia.

But Zamora argued that Laboy was in a drug- and alcohol-induced psychotic state and had no intention of torturing the unnamed puppy, which belonged to the 10-year-old son of the woman Laboy lived with. For the defense, Zamora called Isabel Polo, the boy’s mother, who is serving a federal prison sentence for cocaine possession. She testified that Laboy was frequently drunk and high on cocaine.

Zamora urged jurors to find Laboy, who did not testify, guilty of misdemeanor animal abuse. But after two days of testimony, the jurors needed little more than 30 minutes to find Laboy guilty of the felony. “The verdict was expected,” said Zamora, “for conduct this reprehensible.”