A St. Paul man was sentenced to probation and community service Friday for killing his girlfriend’s dog after he got angry that the German shepherd took their child’s hot dog and then bit him when he hit it with a baseball bat. Rondie Antwon King (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office ) In October, Ramsey County District Judge Joy Bartscher convicted 51-year-old Rondie Antwon King of felony mistreating an animal for shooting the dog in the head in a Dayton’s Bluff alley on June 13, 2021. King had opted for a trial based on stipulated facts and evidence. King’s attorney, assistant public defender Stephen Grigsby, had conceded that King killed the dog, which was named Rocco, but argued the state did not prove it was unjustified. Officers that responded to a report of shots fired in the 1000 block of Wakefield Avenue found the dog dead in the alley with a single gunshot wound to the head. A 9-mm spent shell casing was next to him. Video surveillance showed a white Buick SUV speeding down the alley right after the gunshot. The SUV belonged to King’s girlfriend. She told police that King had been drinking alcohol and became enraged with Rocco after it took a hot dog from their 4-year-old son. She said King attacked Rocco with a baseball bat, causing the dog to bite him in the arm. She said she intervened to protect Rocco and drove around all night to keep King from further injuring or killing the dog. About a week before Rocco’s killing, King was released from supervised release in connection with a 2010 first-degree assault conviction that landed him a 12-year prison term. Most people sent to prison in Minnesota serve two-thirds of their sentence in custody and the remaining on supervised release in the community. ‘Hunted down’ the dog After a presentence investigation, the county’s probation department recommended that King receive a stayed 1½-year prison sentence. Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Kathryn Long said Friday in court that she supports that sentence, but added the state’s position is that he should serve some time in the county workhouse. “Your Honor, this was really an act of cruelty,” Long said. “Mr. King hunted down his girlfriend’s dog. This was a loved pet that did not belong to him. His girlfriend stayed up all night trying to keep the dog away from him.” Long noted how text messages between King and his girlfriend, which were submitted as evidence in the trial, showed that she had pleaded with him not to kill the dog. “But he took the dog from her, and he shot the dog in an alley behind an occupied home, causing the resident to call 911,” Long said. When Judge Bartscher gave King his chance to speak before he heard his sentence, King said he “jumped in front of the kids before that dog could kill them.” He showed the judge scars on his arm. Grigsby, his attorney, then interjected, telling Bartscher that King had been bitten “very badly” by the dog multiple times before. “But we did not have a jury trial … the court never got that,” Grigsby said. “I relied exclusively on my notion that under that statute, in my experience, there is no possibility of a conviction.” Bartscher told Grigsby that she understood his argument, but said King’s decisions, under the “circumstances and the facts of this case, were wrong.” If King believed the dog was going to harm the children, Bartscher said, he could have called child protection or even police. “You could have done anything other than several hours later grabbing that dog, bringing the dog into an alley and shooting the dog in the head,” she said. Bartscher then put King on supervised probation for two years and ordered him to complete 50 hours of community work service within six months. Conditions of probation include that he does not own or be in control of any animals, and that he cooperates with visits from Animal Control. Bartscher noted how the dog’s owner had filed a letter to the court indicating that she wanted King to receive mental health programming, which the judge also ordered. “I don’t think that she wanted him to go to jail,” Bartscher said. “I think she wants him to get the help that he needs so that he can address whatever was going on when this incident occurred.” Related Articles Final gunman sentenced in 2022 gang slaying of man on St. Paul’s West Side Charges: Drunken driver fatally struck woman, 72, in White Bear Township School bus driver fatally hits man on bike in St. Francis Woman, 72, fatally struck by drunken driver while crossing White Bear Township road, sheriff’s office says Turkish student at Tufts University is latest Palestinian supporter swept up in US crackdown ...read more read less