An Aberdeen man has pleaded guilty to first-degree animal cruelty charges after stabbing his dog with a stake and then hitting the animal over the head with a board. He has been treated for mental illness and says the dog told him to kill it.
John Trafford Robinson, 27, told police his dog told him to kill it before he ended the animal’s life last summer. Robinson pleaded guilty to the charges on Monday after going through a competency “restoration” program at Western State Psychiatric Hospital in Lakewood. Court documents state that Robinson is schizophrenic.
According to court documents, police were sent to 1505 W. Market St. to conduct a welfare check on Aug. 21 after receiving a report that Robinson was possibly not taking his medications and had made statements about killing his mother’s dog.
One day earlier, Robinson reportedly said he had “put the family dog down,” because “the dog had told him to.” On Aug. 21, Aberdeen officers found Robinson, who explained he had taken the dog for a walk around 11 p.m. two nights prior at which the time the dog growled at Robinson and asked him to kill it.
During the walk, Robinson said he found a stake and stabbed the dog with it, before tying it to a fence post near the railroad tracks. Robinson told police he left the dog after he tied it up and came back to find it wasn’t dead.
Robinson stated that the dog “looked up at me and said, ‘This isn’t how I am going to go.’” Robinson then hit the dog over the head with a board to make sure it was dead, according to court documents.
When the dog was found by police, the stake was sticking out of the dog’s top left side and the animal appeared to have been stabbed several times. The dog was deceased and appeared to have suffered a punctured lung due to the assault. A wooden 4x4 post was also found near the animal.
Robinson will be sentenced next Monday.
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