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Animal Abuse Cases - Details |
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Dogfighting - (Roxboro, NC - US) Crime Date: 01/00/2003
Case Status: Convicted
Case Updates: Available - Click Here
Abusers/Suspects:
Michael Dowdell
Case ReportPerson-Caswell Assistant District Attorney LuAnn Martin revealed in Superior Court that convicted dogfighter Michael Dowdell allegedly threatened to kill her, his former girlfriend and a Person County Animal Control officer before turning the gun on himself, saying in June he "had a bullet" for each.
Dowdell, who is awaiting trial on a January felony dogfighting charge, remains a "person of interest" in the apparent ambush, authorities said. He has not been named as a suspect.
Bryant was the complaining witness in the dogfighting charge and a related animal cruelty charge. Martin said two witnesses heard Dowdell, 39, make threats on the officer's life.
"Bryant was attacked in a premeditated setup on the same day [Dowdell] was arrested, served and posted bond," Martin said Thursday. "I consider that to be more than a coincidence."
Chief Resident Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith increased Dowdell's secured bond on the dogfighting charge to $105,000 Thursday after prosecutors alleged he violated conditions of his bond release by intimidating a witness -- a felony.
Osmond ordered Dowdell to have no contact whatsoever with Bryant or the witness, Shawn Cannada. Cannada, Dowdell's former girlfriend, is set to testify against him in the dogfighting trial in September.
Cannada said Thursday night that she was going into hiding if Dowdell was released on bond.
"I heard people were trying to get him out tonight," she said.
Dowdell was arrested Tuesday on the intimidation charge and was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond. Smith ordered deputies to arrest Dowdell again Wednesday because officials and Cannada complained about the low bond.
"This is a very significant charge," Martin said. "It goes to the heart of the entire judicial system and the administration of justice."
Martin said Dowdell allegedly tried to coerce Cannada into changing her story about his involvement in dogfighting. The prosecutor read aloud from letters that Dowdell allegedly wrote to Cannada.
In the letters, Dowdell asked Cannada, whose name was Shawn Andres before she married in June, to lie about his case and say he wasn't involved in dogfighting.
Martin also said Dowdell repeatedly violated conditions of his bond by threatening Cannada, the mother of his three children.
Cannada obtained a domestic violence protective order against Dowdell on April 29 in Orange County District Court. He allegedly violated the order on July 10, court records show.
Defense attorney Danny Long Jr. attempted to discredit Cannada by playing a tape of messages she allegedly left on Dowdell's answering machine. The string of profanity-laced messages dated from late March to late May, and Cannada told The Herald-Sun on Thursday night that the messages were hers.
"I left your girlfriend a message," Cannada said in a message dated April 4. "Either she goes or you spend the rest of your life in jail. Adios, [expletive deleted]."
"You might as well start packing your [expletive deleted], 'cause you'll be in jail for the rest of your life," she said in another message.
Dowdell, dressed in an orange Person County Jail jumpsuit, appeared calm and kept his hands in his lap throughout the hearing Thursday.
Bryant walked into the courtroom with a limp from the dog attack.
In a telephone interview Thursday, the diminutive Bryant told The Herald-Sun the cuts and puncture wounds would not stop her from investigating the attack.
Describing the incident, she said a woman called the Animal Control Office at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to report that a dog was hit by a car on Hassell Horton Road.
Bryant said she drove down the rural road and pulled up behind a small, red four-door sedan. As she approached the car to look for the injured dog, she noticed two people with "stocking caps" on their heads.
"I saw someone stand up, saw an arm move toward the car, and the next thing I know, there was the dog," she said. "I didn't even have time to pull my weapon."
Bryant credited a school bus driving up the road for scaring the suspects and saving her life.
When the bus drove near, "I heard three short whistles and the dog immediately went back to the car," she said.
Deputies and animal control officers raided Dowdell's Tobacco Road residence on Jan. 27 and found 12 pit bulls chained to the axles of automobiles. They also found dogfighting publications, equipment used for training and medical supplies used to nurse dogs back to health.
In April, Dowdell told The Herald-Sun that he was innocent of the charges and said he was a "changed man."
Dowdell posted a $25,000 secured bond, reduced from $75,000, on March 19. On May 12, he was arrested for violating the conditions of his release and posted a $5,000 secured bond. Smith increased the secured bond by $75,000 Thursday.
Dowdell, who has a lengthy criminal record, pleaded guilty in Orange County to one count of misdemeanor dogfighting in 1997.
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