Woman acquitted on charge of maliciously drowning puppy

Wilson-McCollough found guilty of animal abuse: Woman acquitted on charge of maliciously drowning puppy

Published: March 18, 2010

By Joel Summer

When the story first broke last August about a local woman drowning a puppy on the Chetco River on August 21, 2009, people were in a fury. However, as is often the case, the facts as presented to a Curry County jury a week ago Tuesday differed substantially from the press release on the same subject seven months ago.

Last Tuesday a jury of six men and six women found Rachel Wilson-McCollough guilty of animal abuse, but they acquitted her on the more serious charge of aggravated animal abuse in the first degree. Members of the jury took just 15 minutes to find Wilson-McCollough guilty of animal abuse. "She did kill the puppy," said one juror.

The jury then took nearly three hours to decide the more serious charge of whether she maliciously killed the pit bull puppy. The jury concluded by a 10-2 margin that she did not premeditatedly kill the puppy. The killing was accidental the jury concluded. There was no intent to kill the dog.

The evidence as presented to the jury was that Wilson-McCollough was invited by a woman who owned the property. They had ridden horses together and became friends. Wilson-McCollough's two children, ages 11 and 9, were on the other side of the Chetco River.

The testimony by at least five witnesses was that at some point the defendant decided to swim across the river to bring the puppy to the children on the other bank. The testimony was that Wilson-McCollough waded into the water and then began to swim about 14 feet. She had the dog nestled in her tank top. Witnesses said she periodically checked the welfare of the puppy while doing a ‘dog paddle' with one arm and holding the puppy with the other arm. She reached a large rock near the other side of the river and appeared to walk or swim around it. The puppy had apparently drowned. The defendant dropped the dog and it sank under the water. Someone offered to dive down and find the dog, but it was too late.

A juror said there was testimony of there being a cooler near where Wilson-McCollough was sitting before she left the bank, but there was no testimony of what was inside the cooler.

At first six or seven of the jurors were leaning toward finding Wilson-McCollough guilty of the aggravated charge, but as discussions ensued the conclusion was that the State had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The final vote was 10-2 for acquittal on the more serious charge.

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If I'm reading this right there was no crime just a unfortunate accident.

She was just trying to take the puppy to the kids so they could play with it and it didn't make it.

It wasn't the smartest way to take the puppy across but it was still just a accident.

 

yeah,she shouldn't have been found guilty of anything but stupidity