A 22-year-old West Valley City man resolved a high-profile animal cruelty case on Wednesday by pleading guilty to torture of a companion animal.
Anthony Richard Spidle's conviction is believed to be the first in adult court under "Henry's Law," which in 2008 made the torture of dogs and cats a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
On March 21, Spidle -- apparently upset because his girlfriend had left him -- beat the woman's 6-month-old puppy, Gabriella.
He stomped on the puppy, threw it against a wall and struck it with a skateboard and a tennis racket, according to charges. The woman received a voice mail in which she could hear the beating, the puppy yelping and Spidle saying, "She doesn't love me and she doesn't love you!"
Spidle's mother heard her son say he was going to cut off the dog's head and give it to his ex-girlfriend, charges state.
The girlfriend later took her puppy to a veterinarian, who said the animal's eye was severely damaged and it suffered from an inflamed brain. It also had marks on its eyes and nose that looked like it had been hit several times, court documents state.
Spidle also pleaded guilty Wednesday to third-degree witness tampering for asking his girlfriend not to come to court and testify against him.
He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 29 by 3rd District Judge William Barrett.
In exchange for Spidle's pleas, prosecutors dropped another witness tampering charge involving his mother, as well as a charge of aggravated assault for allegedly beating the girlfriend.
During the alleged beating in May 4, 2008, Spidle grabbed his girlfriend by the hair, pulled her to the ground, tried to choke her and punched her in the face and head, according to court documents.
During the two weeks after his arrest in the dog beating, Spidle called his ex-girlfriend from the Salt Lake County jail asking her to not come to court, according to court documents. He told her "if she would not show, the state would have nothing," court documents state.
Spidle also called his mother, asking her not to answer the door, which he said would prevent process servers from delivering court notices to her.
Earlier this year, a 17-year-old Riverton boy became the first conviction under Henry's Law when he pleaded guilty to felony animal torture for beating a dog during a home burglary.
Anne Davis, executive director of the Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah, said Spidle's plea to a felony marked the culmination of 13 years of working with legislators to increase the penalty for animal cruelty.
"We started in 1996 with an upgrade from a class C misdemeanor to a class A," Davis said. "After all those years, it's paying off."
Meanwhile, Gabriella has been adopted by a family in the Park City area and is doing well.
"She's one of the lucky ones," Davis said. "She's got a happy life now."
The law is named after Rhonda Kamper's black Chihuahua mix, Henry, who lost an eye and suffered burns when Kamper's now ex-husband chased the puppy with a leaf blower and put it in a 200-degree oven for five minutes at their Murray home in 2006.
For harming Henry, 36-year-old Marc Christopher Vincent was sentenced on a misdemeanor to six months in jail, fined and ordered to obtain a mental health evaluation.
