By msnbc.com staff
A man who stole a woman’s bulldog, demanding pills and $1,000 for his return, was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison, the Longview Daily News reported.
The saga of Jagger the English bulldog began on Oct. 4, when his owner, Jennifer Thomas, of Woodland, Wash., offered to give baby clothes to Johnny Lee Jordan, 39, and his pregnant girlfriend, Ivy Rose Svaleson, 24. Svaleson was days from giving birth.
Thomas, who is wheelchair-bound from an accident and relies on pain medication, last saw her 2-year-old pooch in her driveway, KATU News in Portland, Ore. reported. Three days later, she began receiving threatening photos of Jagger by text message, accompanied by threats.
“If you don’t do exactly as you’re told the next few messages will be of your friend slowly getting tortured to death,” the person wrote, according to KATU. “And do us both a favor, keep this to yourself, no cops.”
But Thomas relied on her medicine, KATU reported, and she did not have money to pay the thieves.
Investigators became involved, but turned up little. Then, on Oct. 24, Jagger the bulldog was found dead on railroad tracks. Officials believe he died before being tied to the tracks. Thomas’s veterinarian concluded that the dog had been tortured, although a Human Society investigator did not find obvious torture wounds, the Daily News reported.
Svaleson has admitted to sending the text messages and tying up the dog by the railroad tracks, the Daily News reported. She and another accomplice will be tried next month.
A witness pointed police to Jordan, who has an extensive record in Washington State.
Thomas, accompanied by her husband and daughter, watched Friday as Jordan was sentenced to 41 months in prison for theft and extortion. Thomas said he showed little remorse for stealing her dog.
"He supposedly was apologizing but he didn't look at us," she told the Daily News. "He tried to blame it on somebody else. He said, 'I'll admit to my part of it but there was another person.'"
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