US man convicted of murder for dog attack

US man convicted of murder for dog attack

LOS ANGELES - A California dog owner whose four pit bulls mauled and killed a 63-year-old woman near her home last year has been convicted of murder.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Alex Donald Jackson, 31, guilty of second-degree murder after less than a day of deliberations. He faces 24 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month.

"This defendant knew how dangerous these dogs were, and he didn't do anything about it," Deputy District Attorney Ryan Williams said.

Pamela Devitt was taking a morning stroll in Littlerock, a sparsely populated high desert town 105km east of Los Angeles, when the pack of pit bulls began to claw and bite her all over her body.

She died in an ambulance of blood loss after suffering up to 200 puncture wounds.

Prosecutors argued that Jackson's dogs menaced or bit nine people over nine months, and that he knew the deadly risk they posed. On two occasions, witnesses testified that he stood by while his dogs attacked passers-by.

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