Willie Bee Turner booking photo
SACRAMENTO — The Oakland man who tortured and killed a puppy last year in Sacramento was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on Friday, April 29, 2016.
Willie Bee Turner, 21, was sentenced in Sacramento Superior Court to three years and eight months in state prison for animal cruelty causing death, animal cruelty, and arson.
In January 2015, Turner drenched his eight-week old Chihuahua named Angel Star with bleach after the pup urinated on the floor. He then tossed it off the balcony of the apartment where he was staying. The dog survived only to have Turner put it in a kennel and set it on fire on the sidewalk. Its charred remains were found at approximately 12:15 am on January 22, 2015, outside a Masonic Lodge on Becerra Way near Marconi Avenue.
Turner was arrested in February 2015.
In appearing before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown for sentencing last week, Brown called the crime “an unspeakable affront to societal norms” and that “there is darkness in the defendant.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Turner cannot own a pet for 10 years. He will be registered as a lifetime arson offender and will no longer be allowed to own or possess firearms. Turner has already served more than a year in Sacramento County custody.
Animal advocates expressed frustration at the sentence and numerous others wrote to the court expressing outrage. Deputy District Attorney Hilary Bagley called it “a piddly sentence for such a heinous crime.”
Lawmakers have also pushed for changes to the cruelty statutes, but it remains a tough battle.
For instance, State Senator Jeff Stone (R-Temecula) recently lost a bid to double the sentences for animal cruelty crimes. Senate Bill 1395, proposed by a high school student in Riverside County, failed to move out of the Senate’s Public Safety Committee.
“There’s no consequence for treating an animal this way,” Stone said last Friday. “We shouldn’t have to have a horrific event like this for something to happen.”
