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Llama suspects implicated again
By ED QUIOCO
© St. Petersburg Times, EAST LAKE -- Pinellas County Sheriff's detectives and forensic investigators dug and sifted through dirt Tuesday morning in search of the remains of two goats reportedly slaughtered at the former home of llama-beating suspect Robert B. Pettyjohn II. They were acting on a tip that in January Pettyjohn, 18, and his friend Brandon Eldred, 18, severely beat two goats tied down in the back yard, then buried the animals, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Greg Tita. In a sworn statement, a witness described the goats as being used as a "living pinata," Tita said. "In the process of interviewing witnesses and friends, (investigators) were able to establish that there was . . . a burial site, where witnesses said they tortured and killed two goats," Tita said. According to witnesses, Pettyjohn and Eldred tied down the goats, speared them, beat them with a baseball bat and cut off their horns with a machete, Tita said. The Sheriff's Office did not release the names of the witnesses. Around the same time the tipster said the goats were killed, deputies received a report of missing goats in the area, which consists of rural homes and large lots that are home to many farm animals, Tita said. Further details of that report were unavailable Tuesday. Detectives uncovered bones buried about 14 inches deep in the back yard at a spot that was pointed out by a witness a day earlier as the site of a shallow grave for the goats. The bones were exhumed and will be sent to an expert for identification. Until more is known about the bones, it is too early to determine if the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office will file additional charges against Pettyjohn and Eldred, said chief assistant state attorney Bruce Bartlett. "We'll see what shakes out of it," Bartlett said. "I would certainly think that they already have a sufficient amount of problems based on the charges they already face." Authorities have charged Pettyjohn and Eldred with animal cruelty and trespassing in the predawn, golf-club beating of two pet llamas on Ranch Road on Feb. 11. A young llama's eye was gouged out and an adult llama was sodomized by a blunt object and later died. Pettyjohn and Eldred also are charged in Hillsborough County with killing one bull and wounding another with arrows during a Jan. 17 attack at a ranch in Odessa. Neither Pettyjohn's attorney, Christie Pardo, nor Eldred's attorney, David Parry, could be reached for comment Tuesday. After the llamas in East Lake were attacked, deputies found Eldred walking on Ranch Road with blood stains on his T-shirt and a broken golf club. Eldred also has been charged with armed trespass and cruelty to animals in the slashing of a third llama with a titanium meat cleaver on Jan. 30. Eldred is scheduled to go to trial Nov. 27. Pettyjohn's Pinellas trial is scheduled for Dec. 11. Pettyjohn used to live on Ranch Road, about a half-mile from a pen where the llamas lived. Many homeowners on the mile-long Ranch Road have large farm animals, ranging from goats and turkeys to donkeys and horses. Pettyjohn's family recently sold the house and moved out. The new owners declined to comment. On Tuesday morning, forensic vans were parked in the front yard of the home as detectives and forensic investigators dug in the back. Detectives have gotten tips that Eldred and Pettyjohn may have abused other animals and have been chasing down those leads, Bartlett said. Investigators "have a full plate right now," Bartlett said. "I can't imagine that you can add much more to it. They are shooting cows in Hillsborough and killing llamas here and people as a whole are outraged." -- Times staff writer Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or quioco@sptimes.com.
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
