Man caught on video throwing dog off ravine sentenced to five years in prison

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (FOX 11 / CNS) - A 21-year-old man who was caught on video twice hurling his pit bull into a ravine in the City Terrace area and subsequently charged in an unrelated residential burglary was sentenced today to five years in state prison.

Andres Spancky Raya pleaded no contest Aug. 9 to a felony animal cruelty charge and residential burglary. He received a two-year sentence for animal cruelty, to be served concurrently with the five-year burglary sentence.

Surveillance video captured Raya throwing the dog -- then known as Mary Jane -- into a ravine in the 1300 block of Luella Drive last Sept. 26, then returning to the cul de sac two days later and throwing the canine into the ravine again, according to Deputy District Attorney Alexandra Campbell.

Authorities had asked for the public's help last October in finding a man seen on surveillance video throwing the dog into the ravine after it jumped in the open window of the motorist's car.

"The video's just heartbreaking to see how this man treated this animal in throwing him over this ravine on two different occasions," the prosecutor told reporters shortly after Raya was charged.

The dog -- who was subsequently renamed Hera Grrl -- has since been adopted, Campbell said.