A woman in Texas said she was nearly mauled to death in court on Friday after a pit bull attacked her near her home last March.
Doris Mixon Smith told a San Antonio jury that she was gardening in her front yard when her neighbor’s pit bull headed toward her with ‘his mouth wide open,’ according to The Houston Chronicle.
‘I said, ‘Please help me, oh God, please help me,” the 72-year-old victim recalled.
The owners of the dog, Alphonso McCloud and his wife, Stanyelle Miles-McCloud, are standing trial after being charged with serious bodily injury.
Doris Mixon Smith (pictured) told a San Antonio jury that she was gardening in her front yard when she was attacked by a pit bull on March 6, 2017
The owners of the dog, Alphonso McCloud (R) and his wife, Stanyelle Miles-McCloud (L), are standing trial after being charged with serious bodily injury
The couple are being tried together and have asked the court for probation. If found guilty, they could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for dangerous dog attack-serious bodily injury, a third-degree felony.
‘He came at me as I was bent over with a pot in my hand,’ Mixon Smith said of the March 6 attack.
Mixon Smith suffered such catastrophic injuries that doctors were forced to remove her left arm just below the elbow
‘I was just fighting for my life, kicking and screaming, trying to get to my door to get my gun. He never turned me loose.’
Kenneth Baker, the couple’s defense lawyer, told the jury that the pet was usually ‘a good family dog’ and never had a history of harming humans in the past.
Jurors were also played surveillance footage of the five-minute canine assault, which was captured on video with a door bell camera, in addition to desperate 911 calls placed by neighbors.
Mixon Smith suffered such catastrophic injuries that doctors were forced to remove her left arm just below the elbow. The skin and flesh was also torn from the eyebrow to the chin of her face.
‘She tried to make it into her house, but that dog latched onto her left arm and it tore muscle and bone, and sinew such that the EMT’s, when they got there, clearly stated that it amputated her arm,’ state prosecutor Daryl Harris told the jury during opening remarks in the case.
When police arrived, they shot the dog, a pit bull mix named ‘Bully,’ three times in order to stop the gory assault.
Attacks by dogs resulting in serious bodily harm are rare in San Antonio, with 36 cases being filed in fiscal year 2017, and of those, only 15 resulting in hospitalization, according to mysanantonio.com.
The case is being heard in the 187th state District Court, presided by Judge Joey Contreras.
If found guilty, they could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine
Attacks by dogs resulting in serious bodily harm are rare in San Antonio, with 36 cases being filed in fiscal year 2017 (Pictured: Scene of the incident in San Antonio, Texas)