Man faces five years in prison for shooting dog in face

A Palmetto man faces up to five years in prison for shooting his girlfriend’s dog in the face in July 2015.

Dakota Vanwormer, 22, entered a plea of no contest Friday morning to one felony count of animal cruelty. He will be sentenced on Nov. 18.

Since Vanwormer has no prior convictions, a routine presentencing investigation was ordered by the court.

Vanwormer has been out on a $1,500 bond since his arrest July 16, 2015.

On that day, a woman found the mixed-breed dog, Tyson, with a gunshot wound to its left cheek in a ditch near 113th Street East and Bud Rhosen Road in Palmetto, according to a probable cause affidavit. The woman called 911, and the dog was turned over to Manatee County Animal Services, which took the dog to Bradenton Veterinary Emergency clinic to be treated.

The dog has since recovered.

The woman’s minor son and his friend had been approached by Vanswormer earlier when he was driving around her neighborhood, claiming to be looking for a rabies-infested dog that he had shot. She in turn drove around the neighborhood and was able to find the dog — who was not aggressive or foaming at the mouth — and put it in her car.

The woman then came across Vanwormer, who also told her that he was looking for the dog — claiming it was foaming at the mouth. She concealed the dog in her car and went home to call 911.

After Tyson was released from Bradenton Veterinary Emergency, he was returned to Animal Services, where they located his microchip and identified his owner, Vanwormer’s girlfriend. She had adopted the dog in October 2014.

Animal Services called Vanwormer’s girlfriend, and she was unaware they had Tyson or that the dog had been shot. She said Vanwormer had told her that he gave the dog away to a co-worker.

Throughout the investigation, Vanwormer gave four different accounts for how he alleged the dog had been shot, deputy Stephen Isbell said in a police report.

The scar from the gunshot wound runs down the dog’s cheek, leading Isbell to determine that Tyson was shot from directly above the head.

“This would not be a likely trajectory of a bullet if a dog were acting in an aggressive manner as the dog would be looking at its target, thus giving the bullet a more horizontal trajectory,” Isbell wrote.

Isbell determined that Vanwormer must have intentionally shot Tyson in the face.

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Man faces five years in prison for shooting dog in face."