An Arkansas man has been sentenced to prison for what the judge called an “unprovoked attack” on two dogs in Wellington in 2022, injuring one and killing the other.
A community tip led investigators to arrest 47-year-old David Thompson in November 2024 for attacking the two 5-year-old dogs in a Wellington yard in August 2022, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. One of the dogs, Jax, was killed in the attack and the other, Diesel, was seriously injured, the dogs’ owner Yadhira Morales told the Coloradoan in an interview shortly after the attack. Diesel died about two years after the attack, and his premature death was potentially connected to the physical injuries he sustained in the attack and the stress it caused him, the judge noted during the May 16 sentencing hearing.
Thompson pleaded guilty to both counts he was charged with — two counts of aggravated animal cruelty, a Class 6 felony — in March. The sentence was left open to the judge, which means Judge Stephen Jouard could have sentenced Thompson to probation, jail as a condition of probation, community corrections or 12-18 months in prison…