Llama suspect held in stabbing

Robert B. Pettyjohn II is accused of stabbing a student in the neck with a pen nearly 3 years ago.

By ED QUIOCO

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 21, 2001

EAST LAKE -- Robert B. Pettyjohn II, a suspect in the golf-club beating of two pet llamas, was charged Tuesday with jabbing a pen into the neck of an East Lake High School student, drawing blood, nearly three years ago.

Pettyjohn told the student that he was armed with an icepick when he assaulted the 17-year-old with a pen on April 13, 1998, in the school's gym area, said Pinellas County sheriff's spokesman Cal Dennie. Pettyjohn was just "messing with him" and left the area "laughing with his friends," Dennie said.

Pettyjohn, 18, was charged with aggravated battery in the incident. Sheriff's investigators also have charged Pettyjohn with armed burglary and dealing with stolen property, accusing him of breaking into a trailer in 1999 and trying to pawn the saws that he had stolen.

Pettyjohn and his friend, 17-year-old Brandon R. Eldred of East Lake, face animal cruelty charges and trespassing charges in a Feb. 11 attack on two pet llamas in East Lake. A 3-month-old llama's eye was gouged out, and an adult llama was sodomized with a blunt objectand later died. Eldred and Pettyjohn also face Hillsborough County charges that they killed one bull and wounded another in January.

Pettyjohn also faces a burglary charge, a grand theft auto charge and two counts of grand theft.

At a hearing Tuesday, Pettyjohn's attorney, Christie Pardo of Tampa, asked Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Richard Luce to release Pettyjohn so he could attend a drug-treatment program in Sanford. The request was denied.

Pardo also asked the judge to reduce Pettyjohn's bail and declare him partially indigent so tax dollars could be used to pay for some of Pettyjohn's court-related costs for the two counts of grand theft, the grand theft auto charge and the burglary charge.

Luce did not rule on the motion for partial indigency, said prosecutor Bill Burgess. The judge did adjust Pettyjohn's bail for those four charges to $10,000 each.

Despite that bond reduction, Pettyjohn was being held in the Pinellas County jail Tuesday night in lieu of more than $180,000 bail.

- Staff writer Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or quioco@sptimes.com.

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