Appeals court removes judge from llama case

The court grants a request from defendant Robert Pettyjohn who questioned the judge's fairness after she rejected his sentencing deal.

By ED QUIOCO, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 13, 2002

An appeals court has decided that Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Nelly Khouzam should not preside over the high-profile animal cruelty trial of Robert B. Pettyjohn.

In a two-sentence decision released Monday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal granted Pettyjohn's request to remove Khouzam from his case. Pettyjohn has claimed in court pleadings that he would not get a fair trial in front of the judge.

Last month, Khouzam rejected a deal that would have given Pettyjohn five years in prison and five years probation for beating two pet llamas with a golf club and mutilating a goat in East Lake. The deal was too lenient, the judge said during a Feb. 8 hearing.

That prompted Pettyjohn's attorney to file a motion to disqualify Khouzam, stating that she had used a presentence report that was not properly authorized and contained incorrect information when she rejected the proposed plea deal. After Khouzam denied that motion, attorney Chip Purcell went to the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Monday's ruling means a new judge has to be assigned to the case, and it's unclear how long that could delay the case. The new judge will have to rule on a handful of motions that have been filed or will be filed by Purcell, including a request for a change of venue and another contesting whether the state can use some of Pettyjohn's past criminal conduct at trial.

Pettyjohn, 19, and his friend Brandon Eldred were charged in the Feb. 11, 2001, attack on Ranch Road in which the eye of Willie Wonka, a 3-month-old llama, was gouged and an adult llama was beaten and sodomized with the broken shaft of a golf club. The adult, named Monopoly, died on the way to an animal hospital.

Eldred, 18, also has been charged in Pinellas with slashing another llama, named Sir Lancelot, in the face with a meat cleaver.

Pettyjohn, who lived in East Lake at the time of the attacks but whose home address is now Holiday, has been charged with mutilating a goat named Peter by beating him with a baseball bat and slashing him with a spear.

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