Man gets court dates for 3 cases related to beating

A man charged with beating his girlfriend, brutalizing her puppy and recording it on voice mail — and phoning the girlfriend and his own mother from jail, urging them to not cooperate with court-related activities — now has court dates for the three cases lodged against him in 3rd District Court.

A preliminary hearing for Anthony Spidle, 21, is set for July 30 before 3rd District Judge Ann Boyden. This will address two charges of witness tampering, both third-degree felonies, which involve the alleged content of phone conversations taped at the Salt Lake County Jail. Prosecutors say Spidle urged the girlfriend to not come to court, allegedly telling her, "if she would not show, the state would have nothing," but if she did attend court, Spidle might be sentenced to five years in prison.

Prosecutors also claim Spidle phoned his mother and told her to avoid state process servers, even to the point of not answering the door or taking the garbage out.

Spidle will have a pretrial conference Nov. 9 before 3rd District Judge William Barrett on a separate charge of cruelty to animals, a third-degree felony, on the claims that he violently mistreated the girlfriend's puppy, Gabriella, and recorded it for the girlfriend to hear.

Court documents state that Spidle severely beat Gabriella, then a 6-month-old puppy, with a skateboard and tennis racket, swung it by the legs into a wall, jumped on the puppy's head and throat while screaming "he was going to kill him, cut off his head and give it to (the woman)."

The dog was in critical condition but was treated by a veterinarian and is doing better.

A jury trial on the animal cruelty charge is set for Nov. 19-20.

The other case of aggravated assault, also a third-degree felony, is "trailing" the animal cruelty case and also is before Barrett on the same days. In the case of the alleged assault, prosecutors say Spidle punched his girlfriend in the face and head, grabbed her hair and pulled her to the ground, and choked her.

e-mail: lindat@desnews.com