A judge sentenced a 17-year-old Florida boy to 23 years in prison after he and two others broke into the home of a state trooper and shot a retired police dog during a botched burglary, the Palm Beach Post reports.
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U.S. Circuit Court Judge Robin Rosenberg said the stiff penalty for the teen, Ivins Rosier, was based on sentencing guidelines, the report says. Rosier was convicted in May for breaking into the home of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Boody on November 18, 2012 and shooting the dog, the report says. The former drug-sniffing dog, Drake, was euthanized five days later.
The teen, who was 16 at the time of the incident but tried as an adult, was sentenced on Friday on charges of animal cruelty, armed burglary and shooting into an occupied building,” the report says. Rosier reportedly confessed to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Detective Philip DiMola on a recording during questioning that he shot the dog. The November 22, 2012, interrogation was played to Palm Beach County jury during its deliberations on Friday, according to Sun Sentinel.
“If you shoot that dog and he dies, that's murder of a law enforcement officer,” DiMola pressed Rosier in the interrogation video.
Rosier's attorneys, Jack Fleishman and Rachel Preefer, had requested that the teen be charged as a juvenile with a six-year prison terms. But Judge Rosenberg said she didn't feel that was appropriate after the court heard Rosier had faced previous juvenile charges for grand theft, battery, lewd and lascivious molestation and false imprisonment, the report says.
Rosier even pleaded for leniency, telling Rosenberg he was misunderstood and blamed his problems on drug and alcohol addiction.
“The vicious ruthless person that I’ve been portrayed to be, that’s not who I am, that’s not who I’ll ever be,” Rosier said, according to the report.
Read more at the Daily Mail.
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