CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced after authorities say her dog viciously attacked a 9-year-old girl and her mother last year in Chester.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports 45-year-old Rebecca Lynn Poole was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison with all but six months suspended for failing to control her dog in a reckless disregard for human life.
Prosecutor Robert Fierro Jr. says Poole and the two victims were at a storage center in October 2014 when Poole’s 68-pound pit bull named Zeus broke free from a leash and began mauling the child. The dog then attacked the child’s mother, Amy Marion.
Fierro says Marion and her daughter, who both suffered numerous bites, have undergone several surgeries since the attack.
In May, Poole pleaded no contest to the offense.
