07/14/2008
Crum Lynne man busted for allegedly killing dog
Rose Quinn ,
rquinn@delcotimes.com
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP - A devastated Crum Lynne woman who watched her husband allegedly plunge a sword through the heart of her beloved "Baby" said Monday he killed more than the 3-year-old American bulldog mix.
"After (Sunday) night, I am totally done with him," Pamela Jones said of James Jones, her husband of 15 years charged with first-degree misdemeanor cruelty to animals and possessing an instrument of crime.
"I fear for my own safety," Pamela Jones said.
Arrested Sunday night, James Jones, 46, of the 1300 block of Holland Street, was remanded to the county prison after failing to post 10 percent of $25,000 bail set at a preliminary arraignment Monday before Senior Magisterial District Judge Leonard McDevitt Sr. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for July 21.
"I was right next to Baby when he was plunging the sword into her. I yelled for him to stop even before he did it," said Pamela Jones, 45. "What made him do that I do not know. I have a (protection from abuse order) and as far as I am concerned, I don't want him out.
"I hope he rots in jail. I know that's cruel to say, but I hope he does."
Pamela Jones said she sought a preliminary protection from abuse order from the court as quickly as she could Monday. Her husband was still at police headquarters when the order was served, according to township police Detective Sgt. Scott Willoughby.
Officers returned to the Holland Street house and confiscated 10 swords, including the fatal 30-inch weapon, and 20 daggers, Willoughby said.
Pamela Jones said her husband has been a collector for years.
According to the arrest affidavit, officers were initially called to the Jones' home at 6:26 p.m. Sunday "for a report of a subject who had just killed his dog with a sword."
Responding officers found the lifeless dog, and saw that it had been stabbed several times in the chest, the affidavit states.
"She was my heart," Pamela Jones said late Monday afternoon, referring to the 75-pound dog she and her husband had rescued from the SPCA when she was only a few months old.
Pamela Jones had retreated inside her house - obviously the pet-friendly kind where three dog figurines can be easily seen through the front window - until neighbor and friend of 10 years, Karen Allen, knocked on the front door.
"She has been a wreck all day," Allen said.
Reluctant at first to be interviewed, Pamela Jones decided, "I want people to know."
Pamela Jones said she couldn't sleep Sunday night because of the violent image in her head, and because she missed the feel of Baby at the foot of her bed.
"I have been afraid of him before," Pamela Jones said of her husband, noting that alleged incidents of physical abuse subsided for about the last 10 years.
More recently, she said, he'd become verbally abusive and it, along with other personal issues, had caused a strain in the marriage. She said he's also been mean to the dog before and, according to the affidavit, had been threatening to kill the dog for several weeks.
"But for him to do what he did," she said, her voice trailing off as she sat on Allen's porch.
"All I have is this picture in my mind," Pamela Jones said. "There is blood all over my living room floor."
Pamela Jones acknowledged she's serving weekends in prison for a DUI and didn't return home until about 6 p.m. Sunday. She was setting up the machine to send a fax and, as usual, the dog was at her feet.
What exactly happened, she said, is a little fuzzy.
"I guess he nudged her. She growled a little, I'm not going to lie," she said. When he got closer to the dog, she said the dog bared her teeth.
"He kicked her twice in the chest, really for no reason. That's when she got mad," Pamela Jones said. "Then he put his fist up in the air, and she went over to him. Next thing, he grabbed a sword and he stabbed her. I see all this blood. ... He did it twice. I don't know which blow it was, all this blood was squirting out of her chest.
"I could see her legs getting wobbly and she fell to the ground."
Pamela Jones said her husband got on the floor next to the dog.
"Oh my God you stabbed my dog," she remembered screaming. "I knew she was gone. She wasn't breathing."
Pamela Jones said her husband knew the dog wouldn't have attacked or bitten him.
"You can ask any of the neighbors," Pamela Jones said.
"She was awesome," Allen said of the dog.
When Pamela Jones told her husband she was going to call the police, he tried to talk her out of it. "He grabbed my cell phone out of my hand," she said.
When the police arrived, the dog was on the outside deck, covered with a blanket, she said.
"The police were wonderful with me," she added.
Karen Allen said she heard through the walls what she now believes were the sounds of her anguished friend.
"I heard something. ... I had no clue," she said.
Willoughby said Pamela Jones was still visibly shaken on Monday.
"She couldn't even tell her story," he said.
In addition to following her husband's case, Pamela Jones said she will be back in court July 24 to get a permanent PFA.
