RICHMOND, Va. -- A Richmond judge today imposed a prison term for dogfighting that is more than twice as long as anything previously handed down in Virginia for the crime.
Circuit Judge Beverly W. Snukals ordered Richard E. Robinson, 33, to spend 10 years behind bars for his convictions on three felonies and one misdemeanor related to a dogfighting operation at his South Richmond home.
Snukals also fined Robinson $2,500 and ordered him to pay more than $4,000 in restitution to Richmond Animal Care and Control for euthanizing and caring for the dogs found at the house in the 2100 block of Wright Avenue.
Authorities said they were unaware of any previous dogfighting cases in Virginia that produced prison terms of more than four years.
Robinson had been convicted in a dogfighting case in May 2005. Snukals, also the judge in that case, gave him a five-year prison term in that matter but suspended all five years.
Robinson was arrested again last June, when authorities recovered 12 dogs -- 11 of them pit bulls -- from the house he shared with his mother, Ardeller Morris. Nine of the dogs were euthanized because they were judged to be severely aggressive, and another was put down because it had facial wounds that had become badly infected.
Almost all the dogs had what authorities said were fresh wounds that were consistent with dogfighting. Dogfighting manuals and bodybuilding supplements were found inside the house.
Morris, 61, was charged earlier this month with 10 counts of felony dogfighting and 11 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.
-- Joe Macenka
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