Deering sentencing delayed, psych eval ordered

AURORA | A judge Tuesday held off on sentencing a man who killed his neighbor’s dog with a pellet gun last spring, instead ordering the man to undergo a  psychological evaluation.

Judge Alex Bencze heard about an hour of testimony Tuesday in the case of Craig Deering, the Aurora man who pleaded guilty last month to animal cruelty for the May shooting death of his neighbor’s dog, Kaci. 

But rather than sentencing Deering, Bencze ordered the man to undergo a psychological evaluation that addresses Deering’s issues with anger in particular. 

“This is extremely important for the court to hear this information,” Bencze said of the evaluation. 

Bencze rescheduled Deering’s sentencing for March 22. 

Deering, 69, faces a sentence of up to 18 months in county jail on the misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. he could also be sentenced to probation.  

During Tuesday’s testimony Kaci’s owner, Dana VanLiew, and her supporters, lobbied Bencze to sentence Deering to the maximum punishment allowed by law. 

“I beg you, please don’t slap him on the wrist, please don’t give him probation,” VanLiew said, fighting back tears. “He needs  to be locked up.”

VanLiew said Kaci was never aggressive toward anyone and was walking with her to the mailbox that day when Deering shot her with a high-powered pellet gun from his front porch. 

Deering and his supporters, however, presented a vastly different picture of the dog that day and in the previous months. 

Deering said the dog had previously charged at him and cornered him in his yard. 

The day he shot the dog, he said she ran into his yard and was again coming at him. A teenager who lives next door to Deering said he witnessed the shooting and saw the dog charge at Deering before Deering shot it with the pellet gun. 

Deering also said he lodged a complaint with the city of Aurora’s animal care division after the first attack, but city officials apparently lost the complaint. 

VanLiew said if Kaci charged at Deering, he never told her about it and she was never contacted by animal control.