A person charged with strangling a canine to demise earlier this month failed to seem in a Līhu‘e courtroom on Wednesday for his preliminary court docket listening to.
Forty-seven-year-old Jason Mearns was scheduled to seem earlier than Fifth Circuit Court Chief Judge Randal Valenciano for his arraignment and plea for the March 17 incident, which concerned him reportedly strangling a canine to demise after which assaulting the pet’s proprietor outdoors the proprietor’s Kōloa residence.
According to a preliminary police report, the canine’s proprietor, a 35-year-old man, found Mearns murdering his canine after listening to a loud noise from his home and going outdoors to test on his pet.
“Upon exiting the residence, the 35-year-old man found Mearns lifting his dog off the ground by its chain,” the Kaua‘i Police Department stated.
An argument then ensued between the 2 males, which resulted within the alleged sufferer struggling an abrasion to his left arm, in addition to a number of scrapes and bruises.
When officers arrived on the scene, they reportedly found the canine, a 3-year-old terrier combine, was already lifeless.
Mearns was then arrested and charged with first-degree animal cruelty and third-degree assault.
Mearns had been scheduled to seem in court docket by way of Zoom, as he’s at present being held on $20,000 bail on the O‘ahu Community Correctional Center in Honolulu, extra generally generally known as OCCC.
“If you watch (the camera) periodically, someone from O Triple C will walk by. But nobody stops,” stated Valenciano in court docket Wednesday morning.
“But we haven’t seen the person we need.”
The March 27 court docket date was the second time Mearns had been scheduled to seem for his arraignment and plea. Court data present an arraignment and plea had additionally beforehand been scheduled for March 20.
“Hopefully we can coordinate Mr. Mearns being on camera,” Valenciano stated.
Valenciano is scheduled to proceed the matter on April 1 at 9 a.m.
