Teen Shoots Dog During Burglary, Gets 23 Years

It's no small prison term: An 18-year-old boy was sentenced Friday to 23 years for a burglary in 2012 during which he shot a retired police dog, the Sun-Sentinel reports. At age 16, Ivins Rosier confessed to breaking into the home of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Boody in West Palm Beach and shooting the 5-year-old German Shepherd, the newspaper noted in May. Rosier's attorney argued that a detective "hustled" the boy during interrogation by equating the dog's death to the "murder of a law enforcement officer" (which wasn't legally true). Rosier's attorney also wanted his client sentenced as a juvenile with a maximum sentence of 6 years, CBS 12 reports.

"I believe this to be sadistic to do this to a child," said Rosier's attorney, who plans to appeal. He conceded that Rosier's crimes were serious, "but when you look at the range of punishments available, that's why they call it juvenile." Ultimately, Rosier's sentence resulted from convictions on three felony counts: cruelty to animals with a firearm, burglary of a dwelling with a firearm, and shooting into a building. "A gun in a 16-year-old's hand can do equally the damage as a gun in an adult's hand," said the prosecuting attorney. "He's not a child." The trooper, Boody, cried when testifying about how he came home to find his dog crippled by gunshot wounds. (In Utah, a 16-year-old boy faces as many as 15 years in prison for taking part in a robbery with friends.)