Fort Worth police

Fort Worth Boy Pleads Guilty in Beating Death of Dog: Owner

A 11-year-old boy pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges in the May beating death of a dog in Fort Worth, according to the dog's owner.

At a hearing in Tarrant County Juvenile Court, the boy pleaded guilty to charges of delinquent conduct, animal cruelty-torture which is a state jail felony, as well as using a deadly weapon.

Jennifer Knittel said she suspected the boy lured both her dogs out of her backyard and beat Cookie with a large stick.

Knittel, the owner of Cookie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel mix said an animal control investigator told her a necropsy showed Cookie died as a result of a fractured skull and a severed spine, the result of many blows to the body.

During Thursday's hearing, the judge granted the prosecution's request to give the boy an additional psychiatric evaluations prior to sentencing.

According to Tarrant County Juvenile Services, a psychiatric evaluation will be performed to determine the boy's personality traits and a neuropsychological exam will look into his medical disposition.

The boy will also undergo a risk assessment to determine his future threat to society. According to Tarrant County Juvenile Services he will not be allowed to have contact with the Cookie's owners and cannot have unsupervised contact with animals.

Sentencing is expected after all tests are complete, which could take four to six weeks.

The boy has gone home and must be in the supervised care of an adult at all times.

Editor's Note: There have been conflicting reports about the boy's age. Tarrant County Juvenile Services says he is 11 years old and was 11 at the time of the offense.

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