Couple found guilty in dog attack that cost woman an arm

An elderly woman who had her arm ripped off and the right side of her face disfigured by a pit bull told the dog’s owners during their sentencing on Monday that while as a Christian she must forgive them, she cannot forget.

A jury in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday found Alphonso McCloud, 27, and his wife, Staynelle Miles-McCloud, 31, guilty of felony charges of dangerous dog attack causing serious bodily injuries following four hours of deliberations.

During the punishment phase that followed the delivery of the guilty verdicts, the jurors sentenced McCloud to four years in prison and his wife to 10 years of probation for the vicious March 2017 dog attack that left 73-year-old Doris Mixon Smith severely maimed.

Doris Mixon Smith (pictured on January 19) told a San Antonio jury on Monday that she cannot dress herself or tie her shoes after a it bull tore off her left arm

Alphonso McClou

Stanyelle Miles-McCloud

Guilty: The owners of the dog, Alphonso McCloud (L) and his wife, Stanyelle Miles-McCloud (R), were found guilty on Monday of causing serious bodily injury

In her impassioned victim impact statement delivered after the sentencing, Mixon Smith ordered the McClouds to turn their attention to her, reported MySanAntonio.com.

‘Look at me,’ she shouted at the pair. ‘I’m missing an arm. God gave me two.’

The victim accused McCloud, a decorated US Army veteran, of showing no remorse after his pit bull, Bully, darted out of his yard on March 6, 2017, and clamped down on her left arm as she was gardening, eventually tearing the limb out of its socket just below the elbow.

The animal also ripped the skin from the right side of the woman’s face from the eyebrow to the chin.

Mixon Smith suffered such catastrophic injuries that doctors were forced to remove her left arm just below the elbow

Mixon Smith suffered such catastrophic injuries that doctors were forced to remove her left arm just below the elbow

‘As a Christian, I have to forgive you, but tell, me, how can I forget?’ she said. ‘I can no longer tie shoes, fasten my earrings, or dress myself.’

Mixon Smith lamented that in the wake of the mauling, she can no longer mow her own lawn, or even hold her pet dog in her arms.

When given a chance to speak, Alphonso McCloud defended himself, complaining that he has been unfairly portrayed on social media and in the news as a ‘bad guy.’

‘I’ve been blown up for my country,’ McCloud said, referring to his military service. ‘I am not a criminal.’

District Judge Joey Contreras raised the defendants’ bond amounts to $250,000 each and had them remanded to jail after learning from the prosecution that on the morning of the sentencing, two other pit bulls were photographed in the McClouds’ yard, in violation of an earlier court order that had prohibited them from owning any more dogs.

‘The arrogance of the defendants is mind-boggling,’ the judge told the court.

In her testimony last week, Mixon Smith described in graphic detail the horrifying dog attack.  

The woman said 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 73-year-old victim recalled.  

‘He came at me as I was bent over with a pot in my hand,’ Mixon Smith said of the March 6 attack.

‘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 last week that the pet was usually ‘a good family dog’ and never had a history of harming humans in the past.

 McCloud, 27, was sentenced to four years in prison; his wife got 10 years of probation

 McCloud, 27, was sentenced to four years in prison; his wife got 10 years of probation

Jurors were also shown 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 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.  

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)  

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)  

 



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk