STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — District Attorney Michael E. McMahon announced that a jury rendered a guilty verdict in an animal cruelty trial for the first time in the history of Staten Island.
Joseph Pucciarelli was found guilty on July 30, 2026, of aggravated cruelty to animals — the top count of the indictment against him — for killing King, a 2-year-old male pit bull, and seriously injuring Annie, a 9-year-old female pit bull, in Eltingville in November 2023.
“Nearly three years ago, in a brutal display of violence, Joseph Pucciarelli committed a horrific act of animal cruelty that took the life of his tenant’s dog, King,“ McMahon said in a statement. “Using a baseball bat, shovel, knife and spear, Pucciarelli subjected a two-year-old dog to a fate that no animal or living thing should ever face.”…