Sentencing Tuesday in dog's death

Craig Deering

AURORA | A 69-year-old Aurora man who killed his neighbor’s dog with a pellet gun last spring is set for sentencing next week.

Craig Deering pleaded guilty Jan. 3 to a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty stemming from the May shooting death of his neighbor’s dog, Kaci. 

At his sentencing Tuesday afternoon, Deering faces a sentence of up to 18 months in county jail and a fine of up to $5,000, prosecutors said. 

In an email last week, Kaci’s owner, Dan Foat, as well as neighbors said they hop Deering gets jail time rather than a lesser sentence like probation. 

Deering was arrested May 4 on charges of animal cruelty and discharging a weapon in the city, both misdemeanors, after police say he shot Kaci.

The charges were initially filed in Aurora Municipal Court, but city prosecutors said a few days after the shooting they felt the case warranted the more-serious felony charge and turned the case over to county prosecutors.

Foat, as well as her neighbors, lobbied prosecutors to file felony charges, arguing the crime was too serious for a lesser charge. 

District Attorney Carol Chambers said a few weeks later that prosecutors didn’t believe the felony charge was appropriate because there wasn’t proof Deering meant to kill the dog, which had been reported to animal care officials as a nuisance in the past.

Prosecutors instead filed the misdemeanor charge, which Deering pleaded guilty to in early January. 

According to the police report, the day Kaci was shot, Foat and her dog strolled to the mailbox near her home in the 19400 block of East Brunswick Avenue.

The dog seemed fine, Foat said, until it walked into the family’s garage, where it collapsed and started shaking.

Foat took Kaci to the Seven Hills Veterinary Clinic, where she died.

Veterinarians at Seven Hills later found two pellets inside Kaci, one in her heart and another in her lungs.

The police report said a neighbor saw Deering shoot the dog.

When police asked Deering about the incident, he at first denied it but later said he shot the dog because he wanted to scare it out of his yard, according to the report. Deering also said the dog had attacked him before, but the report didn’t say when that happened.

Deering then retrieved from a garbage can the high-powered pellet gun he said he used to shoot the dog and was arrested on the two misdemeanor charges.