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"Different" type of assault weapon
http://www.chieftain.com/thursday/news/index/article/18
Dateline: Pueblo, Colorado
Pit bull owner gets 5 years
By PATRICK MALONE
The Pueblo Chieftain
A Pueblo West man will serve five years in prison for using a pit bull as a weapon under a plea agreement reached in District Court on Wednesday.
Michael Jason Ratliff, 25, pleaded guilty to a felony count of second-degree assault. Under the agreement, charges of first-degree assault, and first- and second-degree burglary will be dismissed.
The plea agreement is subject to approval by District Judge Dennis Maes, who is scheduled to sentence Ratliff on Feb. 24.
Absent a plea agreement, Ratliff faced up to 12 years in prison on the second-degree assault charge alone, according to Maes.
Ratliff was arrested in July along with his live-in girlfriend, Nicole Marie Andon, 20.
They were accused of entering the trailer of their former roommate without permission, agitating their pet pit bull, Elroy, and unleashing him on the man. They allegedly beat and kicked the 42-year-old man while the dog mauled him, according to an affidavit by Pueblo police officer Byron Bowers.
A 35-year-old woman who was visiting the trailer with her children, ages 3 months and 12, told Bowers that Andon refused to let her and her children leave during the assault.
Andon was sentenced by Maes to three years of probation after pleading guilty to menacing with a deadly weapon. Charges of first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and false imprisonment were dismissed as part of her plea agreement.
Ratliff and Andon got a marriage license earlier this month, according to county records.
Dateline: Pueblo, Colorado
Pit bull owner gets 5 years
By PATRICK MALONE
The Pueblo Chieftain
A Pueblo West man will serve five years in prison for using a pit bull as a weapon under a plea agreement reached in District Court on Wednesday.
Michael Jason Ratliff, 25, pleaded guilty to a felony count of second-degree assault. Under the agreement, charges of first-degree assault, and first- and second-degree burglary will be dismissed.
The plea agreement is subject to approval by District Judge Dennis Maes, who is scheduled to sentence Ratliff on Feb. 24.
Absent a plea agreement, Ratliff faced up to 12 years in prison on the second-degree assault charge alone, according to Maes.
Ratliff was arrested in July along with his live-in girlfriend, Nicole Marie Andon, 20.
They were accused of entering the trailer of their former roommate without permission, agitating their pet pit bull, Elroy, and unleashing him on the man. They allegedly beat and kicked the 42-year-old man while the dog mauled him, according to an affidavit by Pueblo police officer Byron Bowers.
A 35-year-old woman who was visiting the trailer with her children, ages 3 months and 12, told Bowers that Andon refused to let her and her children leave during the assault.
Andon was sentenced by Maes to three years of probation after pleading guilty to menacing with a deadly weapon. Charges of first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and false imprisonment were dismissed as part of her plea agreement.
Ratliff and Andon got a marriage license earlier this month, according to county records.
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