Teen Faces 15 Years in Prison If Convicted of Killing Llama, Abusing Another
By Jennifer Brite, for Court TV
Originally published by Court TV Online, March 25, 2002
When Keith Appenzeller and his wife took a vacation to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado several years ago, they fell for the gentle creatures—llamas—that carried their camping equipment on their backs.
The animals were "sensitive, bright and aware of [their owner's] mood and personality," recalls Keith Appenzeller.
The couple liked them so much that when they returned to their home in rural Pinellas County, near Tampa, Fla., they decided to raise llamas of their own.
They bought two pregnant llamas, which soon became part of the family. The couple led the llamas and eventually their babies around the pasture and got them used to being handled by picking them up often. They even planned to enter them in llama shows and taught them tricks like how to run an obstacle course.
All of that changed on the morning of Feb. 11, 2001, when Appenzeller made a gruesome discovery while going outside to get his morning newspaper. Two of his llamas, Monopoly and Willie Wonka, were lying in a pool of blood. Monopoly was unresponsive and when she tried to walk, she collapsed. She died on the way to the veterinary hospital. Willie Wonka survived, but its eye had to be removed.
Robert Pettyjohn, 18, now faces felony animal cruelty charges and 15 years in prison for the attack. His accomplice, Brandon Eldred, 18, has already plead guilty and is due to be sentenced in March. The trial was postponed after Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge Nelly Khouzam was barred from the case because Pettyjohn's lawyer alleged she was biased. Both sides expect the trial to take place in April.
'Sick, Pathetic Crime'
Pinellas County prosecutor Bill Burgess said Pettyjohn, along with his friend, Eldred, went to the home of Appenzeller—whom neither had met before—with the intent to violently kill or maim the pet llamas out of a demented sense of fun. He said the teenagers climbed over a fence in Appenzeller's yard late at night and broke into the llamas' cage. They then began to beat three-month-old Willie Wonka and allegedly gauged the baby llama's eye with the handle of a golf club.When another llama, Monopoly, came to rescue the baby, they also beat and then sodomized her with the golf clubs. Appenzeller said his veterinarian determined mammary glands and genitals of the still-nursing mother were beaten between 50 and 100 times and had been virtually destroyed. She eventually died of shock from injuries and bleeding in her internal organs. At some point during the attack, they struck the face of a third llama, Sir Lancelot, with a meat cleaver.
"[The crime] was a glimpse into a twisted mind," Keith Appenzeller said. "It was a sick and really pathetic thing to do."
Animal Serial Killers?
At trial, Burgess will argue that the pair has a history of animal abuse. Pettyjohn, the son of medical doctors, is already serving 10 years for killing a bull with a bow and arrow in another incident. According to the boy's friends who will be called to testify at trial, he and Eldred also allegedly massacred gerbils in a Fort Wayne, Indiana, hotel room and strung up a goat, turtles and fish to be used as piñatas.
He said the violence of the crime, as well as the previous incidents of cruelty to animals, prove that Pettyjohn needs to be taken off the street.
"There is no way this can be categorized as a childish prank." Burgess said. "The primary purpose of sentencing is punishment under Florida law and that's what he should get."
Burgess will bring into evidence a partial confession Pettyjohn made to police and comments he made to family and friends while in jail. He will also call a jailhouse informant, who allegedly had information about the crime that the police did not release. Jurors may hear about a plan Eldred and Pettyjohn hatched to break into Busch Gardens and slaughter the local zoo-like amusement park's extensive collection of animals.
Although Eldred has plead guilty to the crime and admitted Pettyjohn helped him, he probably will not testify because Burgess said he had "credibility problems" because of the nature of the crime he committed.
'More press than a child molestation case'
Pettyjohn's defense attorney Chip Purcell claims the media has blown the case completely out of proportion.
"This case has gotten more press than a lot more horrible things like child molestation," Purcell said. "The press likes to pretend animals are more important than people."
He said Pettyjohn's previous animal abuse conviction, which he is appealing, along with what Purcell estimates to be about 40 stories written about his client have caused, "Ninety-nine percent of potential jurors to assume he (Pettyjohn) is guilty."
He has filed a flurry of pretrial motions, including petitions to throw out Pettyjohn's jailhouse comments, change venue and suppress evidence of his client's other alleged crimes.
He has also won an appeal to disqualify Judge Nelly N. Khouzam because he says she read a pre-plea, pre-sentence investigation report. He also said the fact that she wouldn't let Pettyjohn accept a plea offered by the prosecution proved she was biased.
He wouldn't comment on his strategy at trial. But he pointed out that the only eye witness the prosecution has that can place his client at the crime scene is Eldred, who probably won't be called to testify and that there is no physical evidence that Pettyjohn even stepped foot on the Appenzeller's property.
Pettyjohn's mother, who says he was at home at the time of the attacks, may also testify and jurors may hear of her son's long battle with mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse.
Pettyjohn's father is also standing by his son. He told the St. Petersburg Times that his son had a lot of "good qualities." Dr. Pettyjohn pointed out that his son had given many hours as a volunteer to help hurricane victims, homeless veterans and the children of migrant workers.
No matter what happens to Pettyjohn, Appenzeller says he still feels the loss of his valued pets.
"At that time we had them [the llamas] for months and began to see them as family," Appenzeller said. "So it's very hard to see that happen to one of your family members."
