Edward Daniels Jr. was convicted Thursday of manslaughter after his two dogs mauled a 7-year-old boy to death.

According to the State Attorney’s Office:
Edward Daniels Jr. was convicted Thursday of manslaughter after his two dogs mauled a 7-year-old boy to death.
Assistant State Attorney Larry Basford told jurors in his opening statement Wednesday that Edwards knew or should have known that his dogs, Fat Boy and MJ, posed a danger to the people in his Kelly Court neighborhood. On April 2, those dogs, one a pit bull the other a bulldog, attacked and killed Tyler Austin Jett in Tyler’s front yard after chasing another boy through the neighborhood.
Five days earlier, the two dogs had escaped Edwards’ yard and threatened several neighbors, many of whom reported the incident to Edwards and told him to restrain his dogs.
Edwards was cited by Animal Control that day for his dogs being unrestrained and aggressive. Basford said there had been earlier instances of the dogs escaping Edwards’ yard, but he’d done nothing more than “half-hearted” attempts at repairing a “dilapidated” fence.
“He’s not charged with murder. He’s not charged with intentionally setting those dogs on Tyler Jett,” Basford said of Edwards. “Tyler’s death was caused by the culpable negligence of the defendant.”
Edwards faces up to 15 years in prison when Circuit Judge James Fensom sentences him Oct. 14.
Aug. 29, 2013