A Hamilton County judge is set to sentence a man whose conduct, according to prosecutors, demonstrated a “profound disregard for risk” and led to his daughter being mauled to death by his dogs.
A sentencing for 46-year-old Warren Houston is set for May 22 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court before Judge Virginia Tallent. Prosecutors are seeking a five-year prison term.
After a bench trial in April, Tallent found Houston guilty of charges including involuntary manslaughter.
The night of Dec. 26, 2024, Houston allowed his 3-year-old daughter, Kingsley Wright, to sleep in the living room of his Roselawn apartment, near where he kept his two pitbulls in a cage that had a defective latch.
The dogs − each weighed about 50 pounds − escaped the cage and attacked Kingsley who suffered serious injuries to her neck and body. She died from massive blood loss and separation of her skull from her spine.
Houston and his then-girlfriend were in a bedroom with the door closed. Neither heard the attack or Kingsley’s screams.
In documents filed in advance of the sentencing, prosecutors say Houston created and then ignored the dangerous conditions that led to Kingsley’s violent death.
Houston knew the cage had been bent by a previous dog he owned, prosecutors said. He also knew that one of the door’s two latches was defective.
One of the pitbulls was described as a “bait dog,” meaning that before Houston took it in, it was used to train dogs for dog fighting. Houston had found the dog, named “Chevy,” in a local park and nursed it back to health. Prosecutors said it was so aggressive that Houston fed it while it was in the cage.
Despite that, he left “a completely vulnerable 3-year-old child exposed to that risk while she slept,” prosecutors said, later adding: “The evidence established multiple opportunities to prevent this tragedy. (Houston) could have repaired or replaced the defective cage, separated the dogs, secured the bottom latch, moved the dogs to another room, or otherwise ensured the child was not exposed to danger. Instead, he did nothing.”
Houston’s attorney, Tad Brittingham, said during the trial that no one knew the dogs would act in such a way. They had never previously attacked anyone, and Houston had put them in the same cage every night for a year, with no problems.
Brittingham said Houston was being held responsible “for something that no one saw coming.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Man whose dogs killed his daughter should get 5 years, prosecutors say
Reporting by Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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