More trouble for teen in animal attacks

Robert Pettyjohn II is charged with stealing a compound bow used to kill a bull and taking a van from a golf tournament promoter.

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2001

EAST LAKE -- One of the teenagers charged with shooting a bull to death with arrows and beating two pet llamas now faces two new charges.

Robert B. Pettyjohn II, 18, was charged Wednesday with two counts of grand theft, including the theft of a compound bow used to kill a bull in Odessa in January, said Pinellas sheriff's Sgt. Greg Tita.

The bow was stolen in August from one of Pettyjohn's neighbors on Ranch Road in East Lake. Detective Tom Hoddinott was able to match it to the bow used in the death of one bull and injuries to another, Tita said.

"Our detective just happens to know bows real well," he said.

Pettyjohn also was charged with grand theft auto. He is accused of taking a 1999 green Ford Windstar near Tarpon Springs from Golf Host, a company that promotes golf tournaments, in May, Tita said.

Pettyjohn drove the van for a few hours before leaving it in a parking lot north of the Westin Innisbrook Resort, Tita said. Detective Mike Weaver tracked down the van, which was recovered Tuesday and was found to have expired tags and a dead battery, Tita said. "It's just been sitting there for 10 months," Tita said.

Pettyjohn and 17-year-old Brandon R. Eldred, also of East Lake, face animal cruelty and trespassing charges for allegedly gouging the eye out of a 3-month-old llama and sodomizing an adult llama, which later died. The attack on llamas Monopoly and Willie Wonka occurred in February. Eldred and Pettyjohn also face charges in Hillsborough County in connection with the killing of a bull and wounding of another in January.

Eldred has been charged with felony armed trespass and felony cruelty to animals in the slashing of a third llama, 3-year-old Sir Lancelot, with a titanium meat cleaver on Jan. 30.

Pettyjohn remained in jail Wednesday in lieu of $71,000 bail. Pettyjohn's attorney, Christie Pardo of Tampa, said she wanted to get more information before responding to the grand theft charges.

Tita said detectives are looking into other leads involving Pettyjohn.

- Staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or gazella@sptimes.com.

Recent coverage

Adults attempt to deal with cruelty of teens (March 7, 2001)

Animal cruelty case expands (March 2, 2001)

Well-known lawyer defends teen in llama case (February 21, 2001)

Suspect in llama beatings to be charged as adult (February 20, 2001)

Injured llama returns to shaken home (February 18, 2001)

Llama attack shakes idyllic neighborhood (February 14, 2001)

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