Last Four Defendants Convicted in Multi-State Dog Fighting Case
A federal jury in Trenton, New Jersey convicted four defendants yesterday of violating the animal fighting prohibitions of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The jury deliberated six hours following a nearly four-week long trial before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan. The four defendants convicted yesterday are the last to be adjudicated in this case, which is part of Operation Grand Champion, an ongoing multi-state dog fighting investigation. The defendants are Justin Love of Sewell, New Jersey; Robert A. Elliott, Sr. of Millville, New Jersey; Dajwan Ware of Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Robert Arellano of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Each count of conviction carries a maximum of five years in prison and a criminal fine of up to $250,000. The defendants will be sentenced on Feb. 20, 2019. Five other defendants in the case previously pleaded guilty to dog fighting and firearms charges and were sentenced to a total of 153 months in prison.
The jury convicted four defendants of engaging in a conspiracy to sponsor and exhibit dogs in animal fighting ventures and to buy, sell, possess, train, transport, deliver and receive dogs for purposes of having the dogs participate in animal fighting ventures. They also found defendants Love and Arellano guilty of unlawfully trafficking in fighting dogs and defendants Love and Elliott of unlawfully possessing fighting dogs.
The evidence at trial established that Arellano sold and shipped two fighting dogs to Love and co-conspirator Anthony “Monte” Gaines by air cargo in December 2014. One of those dogs was subsequently fought in a “roll” or test fight the following day, and sustained a serious injury. Gaines also transported a fighting dog named “Bubbles” to Dajwan Ware in order to hide her from law enforcement after local authorities in New Jersey located Gaines’s dog fighting yard. For his part, Elliott, Sr., housed a fighting dog named “Fancy” on behalf of Gaines and co-conspirator Frank Nichols, and possessed twelve fighting dogs of his own.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/last-four-defendants-convicted-multi-state-dog-fighting-case
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