The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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October 10, 2008

Man pleads guilty in dog killing

Charge reduced to misdemeanor

By Dan Nienaber

MANKATO — A Mankato man avoided trial for an animal cruelty charge Friday by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and admitting to hitting an arrow-pierced dog over the head with a log to put it out of its misery.

Braydon Charles Jerve, 20, had been charged with a felony for the July incident. The charge was reduced to a misdemeanor in a plea agreement with the Blue Earth County attorney’s office. Two misdemeanor marijuana drug paraphernalia possession charges, stemming from Jerve’s arrest on July 11, also were dismissed.

Jerve’s friend, 20-year-old Alex Curtis Krause of Mankato, is scheduled to go to trial in December for a felony animal cruelty charge. Krause is accused of shooting the dog, which belonged to his girlfriend Kassi Ziegler of Lake Crystal, with a bow and arrow.

Jerve’s plea agreement required him to make a sworn statement about what happened so it can be used if Krause goes to trial.

Answering questions from District Court Judge Norbert Smith, Jerve said he and Krause went to Ziegler’s Lake Crystal house on July 3. Krause told Jerve that Ziegler’s father, Tony Ziegler, had talked about getting rid of the pet Pomeranian.

Jerve testified Krause took the leashed dog and staked the leash in the ground. Then Krause used Tony Ziegler’s bow and arrow to shoot the dog once. The arrow went through the dog but didn’t immediately kill it, so it was “yipping,” he said.

“I hit it over the head once to put it out of its misery,” Jerve said.

Tony Ziegler and his wife, Heather, suspected Krause had done something to the dog. Krause had been visiting their daughter while they were out of town and the dog was gone when they returned, the criminal complaint said.

Mankato police later received a tip the dog had been killed and its body was in a garbage can outside a Front Street apartment where Jerve and Krause live. The arrow that had been used was found inside the Ziegler house.

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