- Indiana, USA -
UPDATE: September 10, 2021
On September 2, 2021, EDWARD E. WHEATLEY JR. (pictured below) was sentenced to one year of informal probation.
WHEATLEY JR. is accused of abandoning Lady, a pregnant Pitbull-Chow mix, in a cage in a wooded area on December 24, 2017, and she froze to death.
During sentencing, WHEATLEY JR, pleaded guilty to both Class A misdemeanor charges of cruelty to an animal and false informing. The plea agreement was approved by the court.
Two other individuals were involved in this heartbreaking case, DAKOTA SCOTT DUDLEY (pictured below) who at the time of the incident was WHEATLEY’s daughter’s boyfriend and was living with them, and ROBERT MORRIS KIRKLAND JR. (pictured below), who is a friend of DUDLEY.
KIRKLAND JR. was sentenced to 142 days in county jail.
DUDLEY pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of false informing and was sentenced to nearly 180 days on informal probation.
~ Original story:
Lady was found on January 3, 2018, at the bottom of a hill on River Boulevard and Vine Street in Marion in temperatures below zero.
WHEATLEY JR. initially told Marion Police Department that Lady died from Parvo, however, Lady’s body was sent to Purdue University’s Small Animal Hospital in Lafayette for a necropsy and results did not show any evidence of the virus.
Animal pathologists determined that Lady was pregnant with six puppies at the time of her death.
The necropsy found no cancers, bone fractures or toxicity in Lady’s system but did not reveal the cause of death.
After the necropsy, Lady was cremated and her remains were returned to the Marion Police Department.
Lady’s previous guardian was Gage Blackburn. He gave Lady to WHEATLEY JR., who happened to be his stepfather, after he and his mother moved in into a new house and the landlord did not want Lady living there too.
Grant County Prosecutor Jim Luttrull Jr. declined to file charges in this case and the Marion Police Department said they had found no evidence of wrongdoing despite the death of seven innocent lives!!!
When prosecutor Rodney Faulk took office, he said he made Lady’s case “a priority” and the three human feces were finally criminally charged with cruelty to an animal and false informing, both misdemeanors.
Prosecutors believed WHEATLEY JR. and KIRKLAND JR. dumped Lady near the river while she was still alive, exposing her to below freezing temperatures.
Prosecutor Faulk said at the time: “I felt it was in the public interest to reopen the case and felt it was not properly looked at from a prosecutorial perspective.”
On a separate note, YourNewsNow4 reports that ROBERT MORRIS KIRKLAND JR. is currently in jail for domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury.
Furthermore, on December 24, 2020, KIRKLAND called Gas City Police to report that he woke up and found that his child was not breathing. The Grant County coroner ruled the death of the 2-month-old infant as a homicide.
Voice For Us Disclaimer: This story is sourced from official news outlets. Links included.
Details may be removed or additional information may be provided in future should such sources report an update.
They all look like meth heads! They must be punished. They will kill again.