It was a moment of shockingly random violence.
After stopping to fawn over an adorable, 12-pound Shiu Tzu named Sisi on Manhattan Avenue in Greenburgh, a man grabbed the dog by the neck and hurled her into the street, killing her as the owner could only look on in horror.
That was the account of the dog’s owner, Edison Prieto, on Monday, May 18, as the animal cruelty trial of Cory Eulin got underway in Westchester County Court.
“Cory had no justifiable reason for doing this,” Assistant District Attorney Alexander Shapiro told the jury in his opening statement. “Sisi wasn’t growling at him. She wasn’t barking at him, wasn’t trying to bite him or showing her teeth, or acting aggressive in any manner.”
But the defense insists that Prieto’s identification of Eulin moments after the killing to responding police officers – and from the witness stand Monday – was tainted by the cops’ suggestiveness.
“A dog was killed; and it’s a terrible thing,” defense lawyer Angelo MacDonald told the jury. “And it’s brutal and it’s unnecessary and there’s no explanation for it…Animals are like a member of the family. I get it. But you know what’s worse than the killing of an animal, or of this particular animal? It’s convicting the wrong person.”
Prieto said his canine companion of 12 years was a constant presence in his life, even at work where he brought her every day and his colleagues called her his boss.
“Sisi was my best friend,” he told Shapiro, choking up moments later as the prosecutor asked him to identify a picture of the dog. “It breaks my heart seeing her at all.”
Prieto said he had finished his construction job the afternoon of Dec. 19, 2024, and was going to visit his mother when he stopped first to walk the dog on Manhattan Avenue.
He said he saw two men laughing across the street when one of them crossed towards him and bent down to talk with Sisi. Less than a minute later, Prieto said, he started to walk away with Sisi when the man turned around, grabbed the dog by the back of the neck and hurled her to the pavement.
Prieto said he cradled Sisi, who was not breathing and bleeding from the mouth and nose, and shouted at the attacker, asking him why he would do such a thing. The man then made a fist and swung at him, missing as Prieto backed away from the punch.
The man left and Prieto called 911. When two officers arrived, he described the black clothes the man was wearing. One stayed with Prieto, the other went to look for the suspect. When Eulin was spotted inside 30 Manhattan Ave. the officer decided he matched the description and Prieto was told “we think we got the guy.”
Prieto was then driven over to the spot for a so-called ‘show-up’ ID.
“He sees a black guy, a guy dressed in black flanked by uniform police officers with their hands on him,” MacDonald said in his opening statement. “What do you expect him to think…while he’s in back of a police car holding his dog, upset?”
MacDonald said Prieto could have been “mistaken, subconsciously wrong” under the circumstances and that was sufficient for reasonable doubt.
But Shapiro argued that Prieto had been so laser focused on the details leading up to and including the deadly confrontation that he didn’t get the identification wrong.
Eulin, 42, is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison; misdemeanor charges of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals, third-degree menacing and third-degree attempted assault; and a violation, second-degree harassment.
The trial before Westchester Judge Melissa Loehr resumes Tuesday and is expected to last less than a week.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Animal cruelty trial begins for Greenburgh man accused of killing Shiu Tzu
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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