Suspect is facing 2 more charges

Anthony Spidle, a man charged with beating his girlfriend — and brutalizing her puppy while recording it on her voicemail — is facing two charges of witness tampering.

Spidle, 21, already was charged with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, for punching his live-in girlfriend in the face and head, pulling her by the hair to the ground and choking her during a March 4, 2008, incident. Spidle's mother was present at the time, and police said they saw bruises on both women.

Spidle also faces a charge of cruelty to animals, a third-degree felony, for a March 21, 2009, episode in which prosecutors say Spidle beat his now-ex-girlfriend's dog, Gabriella, which was about six months old at the time.

Court documents state Spidle pounded the animal with a skateboard and tennis racket, swung it by the legs into a wall and jumped on the puppy's head and throat "yelling that he was going to kill him, cut off his head and give it to (the woman)." A witness at the scene said she thought the dog was either dead or had passed out at one point during this event.

The former girlfriend told police that when she listened to the voicemails she could hear Gabriella "yelping severely" and also heard Spidle's voice saying, "She doesn't love me, and she doesn't love you!"

The dog was critically injured but was treated by a veterinarian and is recovering.

Spidle is the first adult in Utah to be charged under a new law that permits cruelty to companion animals to be charged as a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.

The statute is often informally referred to as "Henry's law," in recognition of a dog that was harmed by Marc Christopher Vincent. He was convicted of blinding his former wife's dog, Henry, in one eye with a leaf blower and burning the dog in an oven.

Third District Judge William Barrett, who is presiding over Spidle's case, also was the judge who in 2006 sentenced Vincent to six months in jail after Vincent pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty, which was a class A misdemeanor. Animal activists rallied around that case before the state Legislature and termed it one of many examples of why Utah's animal-cruelty laws needed to be toughened.

Rhonda Kamper, who is Henry's owner and is active in animal-rights efforts, said the stricter new law that was passed by the state Legislature in 2008 is technically not "Henry's law." The new statute does let prosecutors charge felonies in certain animal cases, but it was a compromise measure that covers only domesticated pets but not all animals, according to Kamper.