Andrea Rosebrock 
In the case that sparked nation and worldwide response in which three teens, 12, 14 and 16 years old in Guadalupe County, TX, brutally tortured and killed Tobey, a tiny Pomeranian mix puppy, ‘justice’ has been handed down. If that’s what you can call it!! I have no doubt there will be a great deal of backlash on this!!
Three boys who admitted to torturing and killing a puppy this summer will be sent to treatment facilities as part of their punishment.
The boys, ages 12, 14 and 16, admitted to killing a dog named Tobey in August.
The three boys will each be sent to different treatment facilities for six to nine months and will be under intense supervision probation until the age of 18.
The case sparked response from across the world as the district attorney’s office received numerous letters, e-mails and faxes expressing shock and anger over the incident, County Attorney Elizabeth Murray-Kolb said in September. (KSAT)
I am beyond incensed at this!! Although at the time there was a call to prosecute the little monsters under Texas’ new animal cruelty laws, I understand that it could not be done since they were not in effect. It was hoped though that the boys would be sentenced to jail until they were 19 which was an option.
“What not everyone understands is that we are not allowed to do that unless specifically told by the legislature,” Murray-Kolb said. “We must go by the laws that are in effect at the time the crime occurs. That goes for the Code of Criminal Procedure (which sets out rules for prosecution and trials), the probation rules, whatever. They’re to be followed pending upon the date of the offense, and we’re bound by that law.”
“We believe it’s in their best interest and in the community’s best interest to have them stay right there,” Kolb said.
The teens, ages 12, 14, and 16, could be put in jail until they turn 19, if they are convicted under charges of animal cruelty resulting in death.
I, along with many, many people have followed this horrific story since the beginning and no one is going to understand how 6-9 month will ever constitute payment or justice for what these heartless monsters did!!
This little dog, who had probably never known anything but gentle kindness, caring and pampering was repeatedly thrown out of a second story window then when it’s legs were broken they hung it from a tree and beat it like a pinata then decapitated it! There was also evidence that the dog was burned while it was still alive!
Investigators found the dog had been hanged, beaten to death and then decapitated. In addition, it sustained burns and other major injuries.
Whatever happened to;
Nan Udell, an assistant Guadalupe County attorney doesn’t think this case will go to court. She predicts all three teens will most likely be sent to the Texas Youth Commission until they are 19 years old.
“These individuals appear to be so dangerous that we shouldn’t have them in our society,” said Udell.
“This is a wake up call, because really bad things can happen here,” said Nan Udell, an assistant Guadalupe County attorney. It may be one of the saddest cases Udell has had to prosecute in the county.
“This is a crime of power over something that is helpless,” added Udell.
Somehow 6-9 months just doesn’t look like incarceration until they’re 19. Don’t they look quite so dangerous now? Do you think everyone has forgotten?
I just don’t know what more to say. I am so upset, disappointed and angry over this! No doubt we’ll be seeing these vicious little thugs headlining again. Afterall, it’s been proven again and again the link between animal cruelty and interpersonal violence.
Read the Tribute to Tobey
Someone should do the same to those 3 little bastards!!! I hope they burn in hell!!
I am just outraged at this sentence. We were “promised” that these little @#%&*@^#s would be prosecuted to the fullest. This is not what I call any kind of punishment. The only consulation will be that we can say “We told you so”, when they kill a human. What a sick, sick world this is.
Lucky and Animal Lover, you are both so right!!! If I’d have written all that I was really feeling and thinking, I could not have published it!
Like I said, I have no doubt we’ll be hearing about them again not too long in the future!
Deanna
Deberian recibir el mismo castigo que le dieron al pobre perrito.
Obviously these boys have MAJOR issues. If they can do this to poor Toby or any other dog at the age they are at, what will they do when they get older? They definitely need a HARSHER sentence. They are potential dangerous people. They obviously have no compassion for life. Poor Toby, my heart goes out to this little dog. What Toby had to endure until the end is beyond words.
Makes me sick how stupid and cruel some people are.
i can not get this out of my mind – here is a little more on it
Trio sent to treatment facilities
By Ron Maloney
The Gazette-Enterprise
Published December 23, 2007
SEGUIN — The three Guadalupe County boys who tortured and killed a small dog last August have accepted responsibility for their deed and have been sent to locked treatment facilities where they will spend at least the next several months.
Assistant County Attorney Nan Udell announced late Friday afternoon that the last of the three boys, ages 16, 14 and 12, pleaded “true” to the allegations in a juvenile hearing Friday afternoon.
Udell didn’t give the age of the boy or say where he would be treated to protect his privacy and confidentiality. But the youths are going to three separate, locked treatment programs. One is operated directly by the state. The other two are contracted to the state.
All three boys will undergo unspecified treatment for six to nine months.
If they cooperate in the treatment and successfully complete it, each will remain on “intensive supervision” probation for an undetermined time afterward — at least one year.
“They will be monitored for as long as the law allows,” Udell said.
Intensive supervision, Udell said, is conducted by specialized, highly-trained probation officers and includes more intrusive monitoring and more frequent visits — both to the juvenile probation office and in the home. It involves strict restrictions from the home to school or a workplace enforced by the use of ankle monitors and similar devices.
But that could be moot for any of the boys who doesn’t complete treatment. In that case, that child will go into one of TYC’s juvenile correctional institutions.
If he completes treatment and then doesn’t comply with stringent probation conditions designed to protect the youth and the community, he goes to the juvenile equivalent of state prison, as well.
“We’ll be watching,” Udell said.
The grisly Aug. 29, torture and beheading of the dog, owned by a young girl who lived in the same mobile home subdivision as the boys became national news after an investigation conducted by Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Robert Murphy and County Attorney’s Office Investigator Frank Allenger.
The boys kidnapped the animal, named “Toby,” from in front of the girl’s residence and took him to an abandoned house on nearby Glenewinkel Road, where they threw it from a second-story window at least twice to immobilize it and then beat, burned, hung and beheaded the animal.
County Attorney Elizabeth Murray-Kolb expressed shock and outrage and said she was “sickened” by what had happened. She promised to seek justice — and rehabilitation — for the boys, should they accept it, because in juvenile justice, the goals of treatment and rehabilitation are placed above punishment or retribution.
“We have to remember these are children,” Murray-Kolb said.
The crime created outrage in the county that spread across the country and to Europe. Murray-Kolb’s office received thousands of e-mails and letters, including a petition with more than 10,000 signatures seeking the stiffest sanctions possible or that the boys be tried under new law that took effect just two days later that would have dramatically increased the potential punishment in the case for an adult from two to 10 years in prison.
County officials could not do that, because under Texas law and the law of most other jurisdictions as well, a criminal must be prosecuted under the laws in effect at the time of the offense.
A pop musician in England even wrote and performed a song about the incident called “Tobey’s Song.”
The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise received hundreds of letters and e-mails, and still gets several each week seeking information on the case.
As a result of the attention and the nature of the news reporting, Murray-Kolb and the attorneys defending the boys agreed in September in consultations with the county’s juvenile judge, County Court-at-Law Judge Linda Z. Jones to shut down statements to news media until the cases were resolved.
Udell said Friday afternoon she understood from the nature of the incident and what happened to the dog many would prefer stronger sanctions.
But the law and its emphasis on rehabilitation must be taken into consideration, she said.
“Some of us might wish for a harsher sentence for these young men,” Udell acknowledged. “But in a civilized society, we must follow the law. The law says with juveniles, our emphasis is to be on treatment and rehabilitation, and that’s what we’re offering these kids. The law also allows for harsher results if the treatment does not work.”
Hi Deanna, thanks for posting an update on the case involving poor little Tobey. I’m still as upset as I was the ‘day’ I first read about this. My reaction and outrage will NEVER subside. This is too awful.
As far as Murray-Kolb’s comment at the start of this case “We have to remember these are children,”:
Everyone hear me….
Can we please collectively “wake up” as a society” and STOP protecting, empathizing, and making ‘excuses’ for someone just because they are under age 18? ..please.
I know I’m repeating this but by age 7 you know right from wrong (the age or accountability). By age 16 you can drive a car.
These ‘fiends’ deserves hard jail time (minimum 10 years – no parole) for the extremely cruel nature of their crime. Please don’t refer to them as ‘children’ or ‘boys’ as that implies they are somehow normal, decent, and also deserving of ‘respect’.
Also, what is all this ‘confidentially BS” about ‘protecting them’? These fiends should have ‘lost’ their right to confidentially and protection after committing such a cruel deliberate act…we’re not talking about an accident – this was “cold, calculated, and deliberate”.
I would love to see their names and faces plastered all over the news (or internet) so we all know WHO they are. If anyone has their pictures…please POST THEM and let us all know where to go to see them.
Unfortunately, the punishment did NOT fit the crime and they will ‘walk’ and get to do this again, after a couple of years, and maybe even to a human being. They are depraved and will NOT be rehabilitated in 9 “short sorry months”.
What have they learned? Well they’ve learned they will get a slap on the wrist, go through the motions, and that’s all. I know the laws are tougher now in Texas (albeit too late to charge them as such). This is a sad ending to a very sad story…all the way around. I’m very disappointed.
Beloved Tobey…you did NOT get justice. The human race has let you down…again.
Tobey didn’t get justice at all! Why weren’t they sentence to prision when they turn 18 or 19 for a very long time. Poor dog should of gotten a better justice than what he got. I hope someone will teach these boys a lesson.
The mother’s of these little pieces of garbage should be shot for not having abortions. I hope these kids get stomach cancer. Future serial killers. They should be beaten and drowned.
I was sickened as well when I heard this news story. I agree that young offenders names should be published so that people can see who these kids are.
These boys knew exactly what they were doing at the time it happened. Like most criminals they are just sorry they got caught.
The parents of these sick and twisted individuals should be held accountable as well. It’s disturbing to know that this is what their children do with their friends in their spare time. To say they did not know is a lie but rather did not care.
I sure hope that follow up is done on these kids when they get out. Too bad the punishment wasn’t a bit more fitting. I’d like to see the look of fear on their faces if you threw them out a second story window and broke their legs.
An eye for an eye. I could administer REAL justice to these boys, as they are not human and should not be allowed to breath the same air as the rest of us. I think the parents should be drug out in the street and shot for raising such pathetic little freaks. There is no excuse for this kind of crap to be happening to animals!