Suspect in llama case is mistakenly released

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 23, 2001

LAND O'LAKES -- A teenager suspected in a fatal llama beating and several other animal abuse cases was mistakenly released Monday night from the Pasco County Jail.

A law enforcement bulletin was issued at 6:40 p.m. for the re-arrest of Robert B. Pettyjohn II, 18, of New Port Richey.

It was not clear late Monday exactly why Pettyjohn was released. Pasco sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll would say only that he was released "erroneously," and that deputies realized their mistake moments later.

As to whether Pettyjohn was armed, Doll said, "I'm sure he wasn't when we let him go."

Tom Hennessy, the captain in charge of corrections, said the department is looking for Pettyjohn at the homes of his family and friends.

"We don't know which direction he took from the jail," said Hennessy.

Pettyjohn, already a suspect in two animal abuse cases, was jailed again last week on a new charge of felony animal cruelty after authorities unearthed the remains of a goat in Pettyjohn's former back yard.

A necropsy performed by Pinellas-Pasco Chief Medical Examiner Jon R. Thogmartin concluded the goat was stabbed and beaten to death with a blunt object, its head cracked into 29 pieces.

When deputies asked Pettyjohn, 18, the motive for the beating, he replied: "Pure pleasure," said Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Greg Tita.

In addition to fracturing the animal's skull, the fatal attack included chop wounds on the goat's right horn and stab wounds to the ribs and spinal column, according to the necropsy report.

Pettyjohn was arrested at his home in New Port Richey last Thursday and had been held in the Pasco County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Pettyjohn and friend Brandon Eldred, 18, of East Lake already await trial on charges of animal cruelty and trespassing in connection with 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.

After Pettyjohn's arrest, witnesses came forward and said they saw Pettyjohn and Eldred tie down two goats in Pettyjohn's back yard and severely beat and bury them. One described the goats as being used as a "living pinata," Tita said.

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.

This is the third incident in one week involving Pasco County Jail inmates.

Last Thursday, two Pasco inmates escaped when they walked out an open door. One facing kidnapping and carjacking charges was caught 3 miles from the jail. The other was caught in the jail parking lot.

That day two other inmates tried to escape by using a rod to scrape their way out of a cell.

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