Texas man accused of beating, burning dog arrested in Youngstown
After nearly two years on the run, a Texas man wanted in an animal abuse case sits behind bars--but in the Mahoning County Jail.
24-year-old Kieshaw Aquino-Rodriguez was arrested and booked on a domestic violence charge back on May 14th..and it wasn't long before law enforcement officials and rescue organizations made the connection.
"Animal cruelty is now a third-degree felony in Texas--we just have to get him down here to do the time.", said Sandi Walker with Second Chance Farms.
Sandi has been rehabilitating Samsonite; once a puppy; and now a two-year-old pit bull mix that was tortured, stuffed in a suitcase, burned and left to die in a dumpster near a Dollar General in Killeen, Texas.
"The suitcase was 75 percent of his size so they crammed him in there--so when they got him out his back was just hunched up.", Walker described.
Samsonite--named after the suitcase he was shoved in by investigators--has been in Walker's care ever since.
Here is a copy of the indictment from
The culprits--Alex Soto Cruz and Rodriguez; both were charged and bonded out. Cruz returned and received a 3-year prison sentence...but the latter never returned.
Rodriguez's bond is set at $5,000--however Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene says regardless if he's bonded out--at the summation of his domestic violence case here in Mahoning County--then Bell County can have him extradited back to Texas...where Sandi says animal lovers, rescue organizations will be awaiting him.
"We were at the sentencing of the first guy and we just about packed that courtroom, and we will be there for this one too.", said Walker.
Meanwhile, Samsonite is alive and doing much better as he's continued to heal over the years. Walker says his resilience has made him the face of animal cruelty.
