Napoli
KINGSTON – An Ulster County Court jury convicted a Pine Bush man of shooting his housemate’s dog to death after tying to a tree in his backyard.
Eric Napoli, 44, was convicted of aggravated cruelty to animals as a felony. When sentenced in April, he faces up to two years in jail.
Napoli shot the six-year-old huskie named Luna with a shotgun loaded with leaded birdshot.
The dog’s owner, a Pine Bush school teacher, was called as the prosecution’s first witness. She testified that the dog she adopted after it was left abandoned tied to a tree.
She told the court that on April 16, 2015, just as her students were
getting on the bus, she received calls and texts from Napoli that if she
did not take Luna to the pound, he was going to kill her. She sped home
to get Luna to a safe place and when she arrived, the dog was tied to
a tree, but seemed unharmed.
She went into the house to pack a couple of personal items to leave when she heard two gunshots and a yelp from the dog.
Napoli took the stand and testified that he came home and found Luna standing over his dead cat and believed Luna had killed it. But, during cross examination, he admitted he had a pit bull that also lived there and that Luna never acted aggressively toward the cat.
Napoli also testified that after giving his roommate the option of taking Luna to the pound or shooting her, she acquiesced to him shooting the dog to death, something she adamantly denied.
District Attorney Holley Carnright said Napoli had a lengthy criminal history of alcohol-related offenses that under state law, the jury was not entitled to hear about. He also has a pending felony DWI charge pending.
