{"id":18236,"date":"2013-09-11T20:32:40","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T00:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=18236"},"modified":"2013-09-11T20:32:40","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T00:32:40","slug":"jury-convicts-dog-shooter-of-animal-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=18236","title":{"rendered":"Jury convicts dog-shooter of animal cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Vincent Township man not justified in killing family\u2019s pets\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gabriel<\/a>

Gabriel Pilotti, 73, of Chester Springs, was convicted of two counts of animal cruelty on Wednesday for shooting two of his neighbors\u2019 dogs.<\/p><\/div>\n

A West Vincent Township man never denied shooting two of his neighbors\u2019 dogs that strayed onto his property on Feb. 12; at issue for a Chester County jury was his state of mind.<\/p>\n

In his closing argument on Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Kevin P. Pierce argued that Gabriel Pilotti, 73, of Chester Springs, acted with malice and willfulness when he used a single-shot, 20-gauge shotgun to kill 2-year-old Argus and then 1-year-old Fiona, Bernese mountain dogs owned by neighbors Mary and William Bock.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Thomas H. Ramsay strongly disagreed, insisting that his client had no such malicious intent and was simply reacting to a perceived threat to his sheep. In fact, in May 2012, Pilotti shot two pit bulls mauling a neighbors\u2019 sheep and was hailed as a hero for his actions, Ramsay said.<\/p>\n

After 4 \u00bd hours of deliberations, the jury of nine women and three men found Pilotti guilty of two counts of animal cruelty. Having been warned by Senior Judge Ronald C. Nagle to avoid any outbursts, about a dozen Pilotti supporters and an equal number of advocates for the Bock family registered no reaction as the verdict was announced. Pilotti was also impassive. Nagle set a sentencing date of Oct. 28.<\/p>\n

After the verdict, neither Pierce nor Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan had any comment on the jury\u2019s decision, citing the pending sentencing. Hogan said he did not know whether prosecutors would seek jail time for Pilotti. Ramsay also declined to comment.<\/p>\n

William Bock said his family was relieved by the verdict. \u201cWe\u2019re glad we finally have closure,\u201d he said. \u201cWe feel that justice was done and can explain that to our children.\u201d Bock said he was grateful to the people who worked to bring the case to prosecution, including the West Vincent Township Police, District Attorney\u2019s Office, the Chester County SPCA, and a group of animal advocates.<\/p>\n

Bock said it had been difficult listening to testimony describing the family\u2019s pets as threatening. \u201cWhen I heard him say Fiona lunged at a sheep, I could barely stay in my seat,\u201d he said. \u201cThat dog never lunged at anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury forewoman said the panel experienced some difficulty as well when it began its deliberations. She said it was a challenge to follow the judge\u2019s instructions and keep emotion out of the decision-making. She said the group had to focus on the law. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy, and it wasn\u2019t pleasant,\u201d the woman said. \u201cI am glad it is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the deliberations, the jury had one request: It wanted to listen again to a voicemail that Pilotti had left for a neighbor shortly after the incident. In the message, Pilotti\u00a0 stated:\u00a0 \u201cTwo shots, two more dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pierce suggested that Pilotti sounded like he was gloating. He argued that Pilotti\u2019s testimony about seeing a dog and going into his house to get a gun proved that he had no intention of using less extreme measures to shoo away the dogs, one of which he acknowledged was running away when he fired. \u201cWhy go out of your house with a gun if your intention is not to shoot?\u201d Pierce asked.<\/p>\n

Calling the prosecution \u201cunfair and unjustifiable,\u201d Ramsay argued that the law permitted Pilotti to kill the dogs if they were pursuing his sheep. \u201cHe had the legal right to shoot them,\u201d Ramsay said. In addition, the fact that the dogs were loose was a violation of dog-leash laws. \u201cThey had no right to be in that pasture,\u201d Ramsay said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Vincent Township man not justified in killing family\u2019s pets\u00a0 By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times A West Vincent Township man never denied shooting two of his neighbors\u2019 dogs that strayed onto his property on Feb. 12; at issue for a Chester County jury was his state of mind. In his closing argument on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[317],"tags":[4156,1455,4163,4152,4155,4164],"class_list":["post-18236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-region","tag-assistant-district-attorney-kevin-p-pierce","tag-chester-county-spca","tag-defense-attorney-thomas-h-ramsay","tag-gabriel-pilotti","tag-senior-judge-ronald-c-nagle","tag-west-vincent-township-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}