Police arrested a Savannah man Wednesday on multiple animal abuse charges after officers found a dead dog outside his home.
John Spaulding, 56, was charged with three counts of animal cruelty from the state of Georgia, two counts of no shots, two counts of no tags, one count of animal neglect, one count tethered dog, and one count of failure to report a dead animal.
Just after 3 a.m., officers responded to a theft report on the 1200 block of Damon Street. While inspecting the house’s exterior for signs of theft, officers observed a decaying dog in a pen with a malnourished dog, said Julian Miller, Savannah-Chatham police spokesman.
A second malnourished dog was discovered tied to a fence. Injuries consistent with dog fighting also were present on the animals, Miller said.
The dogs appeared to be pit bulls and pit bull mixes.
Animal Control officers arrived and removed the deceased dog’s remains and transported the remaining dogs to an emergency veterinary hospital.
They were released and are now housed at the police department’s animal shelter, Miller said.
Woman dies in McIntosh County wreck with Savannah-based state trooper
A Florida woman died Wednesday night after a Savannah-based Georgia State Patrol trooper’s vehicle collided with hers on Interstate 95 in McIntosh County.
About 7:45 p.m., trooper Bobby Black was driving his patrol car north in the inside lane of the highway when, at mile marker 64 about three miles south of the Liberty County line, he struck a 2014 Ford Edge driven by Sue Lynn Risley of Titusville, Fla., said State Patrol Col. Mark W. McDonough, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
Risley had been traveling north in the middle lane, signaled to the left to pass traffic and moved from the middle to the inside lane.
“All indications at this time are that Miss Risley made a legal lane change,” McDonough said.
The front right portion of the patrol car struck the rear of Risley’s vehicle, pushing it to the left. Her vehicle overturned several times, traveling across to the east shoulder of the roadway before coming to rest, McDonough said.
She died on scene.
Black, who was not injured in the wreck, rendered aid and CPR, McDonough said.
The State Patrol’s crash reconstruction team and its Office of Professional Standards are conducting an investigation into the wreck, and they are working hand-in-hand with the McIntosh County District Attorney’s Office, McDonough said.
“I’d like to express my sincere sorrow for Ms. Risley’s family, and commit and give my word that the Department of Public Safety will do its best and do the right thing,” McDonough said.
McDonough said it had not yet been determined how fast either vehicle was traveling.
Black, 41, who has been assigned to Savannah’s Night Hawk DUI Task Force since Feb. 1, has been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation is ongoing.
He had not been involved in any other wrecks in his time with the State Patrol, McDonough said.
The trooper began working for the state patrol last year, but has had about a decade of law enforcement experience, including a period of employment at the Savannah-Chatham police department, McDonough said.
Garden City pair sentenced in elder abuse case
A Garden City woman on Thursday was sentenced to 20 years in prison — with six to serve — and her co-defendant to 20 years with eight to serve for their convictions on elder abuse charges involving her mother.
Maria Daphne Wiggins, 48, was sentenced to the 20-year term for cruelty to a person 65 years of age or older with an additional five years, concurrent, for exploitation of an elderly person.
Michael Victor Nesmith, 52, was sentenced to 20 years on the cruelty charge and an additional five years, concurrent, on the exploitation count.
Because Nesmith was charged as a repeat offender, he will not be eligible for parole.
Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass Jr. imposed the terms after a jury returned the convictions on Feb. 8.
Assistant District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones, who is the office’s elder abuse prosecutor, said that between June 1 and June 26, 2012, Wiggins and Nesmith deprived Wiggins’s mother, 68-year-old Caroline Louise Thomas, of food and water and withheld her necessary medications.
Wiggins and Nesmith also removed the window air-conditioning unit and boarded up the windows to the room where Thomas spent most of her time, evidence showed.
In addition, they routinely spent Thomas’s Social Security checks which were electronically deposited into her bank account. The defendants immediately drained the account by withdrawing large sums in cash, evidence showed.
Garden City Police were alerted to the situation after EMS was called to the Dean Forest Road home to provide medical assistance to Thomas and she described her abuse.
Compiled by Dash Coleman and Jan Skutch