Firefighter With PTSD Convicted After Killing Puppy

Firefighter sentenced to jail for killing puppy
Napa Valley Regigister
MARIA SESTITO
June 3, 2016

Minagawa said that PTSD is more common among first responders than in the general public. “I see PTSD with police officers, sheriff’s deputies, paramedics, firefighters and federal agents,” he said.

Nicholas Luiz, the Santa Clara firefighter who pleaded no contest to two charges of animal cruelty after killing his 6-month-old German Shepherd puppy, was sentenced to 210 days in jail in Napa County Superior Court on Friday.

The puppy named Woody was killed by Luiz at his former home on Massa Drive in Napa on Dec. 29 after months of being abused. The incident was reported by a neighbor who claimed to have seen Luiz “beat his dog to death,” according to the prosecution’s sentencing brief.

The neighbor reported that Luiz had picked Woody up, thrashing his body on the ground seven or eight times, prosecution said. When police arrived that night, no one answered. They obtained a search warrant and found the animal the next morning wrapped in a plastic garbage bag in the laundry room. Luiz admitted that “things got out of control” and that he had been drinking, prosecution said.

Woody’s supporters from Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch, who have been following the case since the beginning, took up nearly two rows of seats of the courtroom waiting to hear Judge Francisca P. Tisher’s sentencing decision.
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