{"id":263116,"date":"2026-05-08T06:09:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263116\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T06:09:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:09:43","slug":"st-petersburg-man-convicted-of-decapitating-dog-back-in-jail-after-losing-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263116\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg man convicted of decapitating dog back in jail after losing appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A St. Petersburg man convicted of decapitating his newly adopted dog Dexter and dumping its remains in Fort De Soto Park in 2024, inspiring a new state law named after the animal, is back in jail after losing his appeal.<\/p>\n

Domingo Rodriguez, 67, was booked into the Pinellas County Jail Wednesday to serve the nine-and-half months left of his sentence after the state\u2019s Second District Court of Appeal affirmed his conviction, records show.<\/p>\n

The court issued its opinion on April 8 and Pinellas Judge Keith Meyer ordered Rodriguez to be taken into custody during a status hearing Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez\u2019s new release date is Feb. 22, jail records show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we disagree with the courts\u2019 decisions, both in the trial court and the Second District Court of Appeal, we respect the time and attention that they gave to my client,\u201d Victor Zamora, Rodriguez\u2019s attorney, said Thursday. \u201cHe respects the process, and now it\u2019s time to try to put this behind him and complete his sentence and move on with his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd hopefully,\u201d Zamora added, \u201cthe public at large can move on from this as well. We understand the emotions behind everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez was found guilty<\/a> by a jury in February 2025 on charges of animal cruelty and unlawful disposal of a dead animal. He was sentenced to one year and 60 days in jail, the maximum penalty allowed by state law.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez served about five months in the county jail, then in July a Pinellas judge ruled that he could be released <\/a>while an appeal was pending if he put up a $55,000 bond and met specific conditions. Rodriguez was released on July 15.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On May 10, 2024, Rodriguez and his wife adopted Dexter, a 4-year-old black and white bulldog mix, from Pinellas County Animal Services. Four days later, Dexter was found decapitated, floating in a bag among mangroves on the east beach of Fort De Soto.<\/p>\n

Surveillance cameras captured Rodriguez driving his pickup truck in that area of the park on May 11 with a cooler in the back. At Rodriguez\u2019s home, deputies found bags like the one in which Dexter was found.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez was arrested May 15, 2024 and released the next day on a $5,150 bond.<\/p>\n

After his conviction, Rodriguez and Zamora requested that he be released on bond while the appeal was pending due to his status as a first-time, nonviolent offender.<\/p>\n

Judge Meyer wrote in his July ruling that he didn\u2019t agree with Zamora\u2019s characterization of Rodriguez as a \u201cnon-violent\u201d offender.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence at trial demonstrated that the canine victim, Dexter, was slaughtered, and his body decapitated, mutilated, and disposed of, in an extremely violent manner, and with no apparent motive,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

However, Meyer wrote, the court had \u201cno choice\u201d but to allow Rodriguez reasonable bond, noting that he was \u201cin his mid-60s, has no prior record, was successful on pretrial release, and was convicted of misdemeanors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case sparked outrage and a group of activists formed a group called Justice for Dexter, who pushed for the maximum penalty for Rodriguez. Dexter\u2019s death also inspired legislation that enhances penalties for animal cruelty and establishes Florida\u2019s first animal abuser database. Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, Dexter\u2019s Law<\/a> took effect July 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A St. Petersburg man convicted of decapitating his newly adopted dog Dexter and dumping its remains in Fort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[12651,113539,53397,113536,60400,113540,113537,596,113538,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-263116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-cruelty-to-animals","tag-decapitating","tag-dexter","tag-domingo-rodriguez","tag-fort-de-soto","tag-judge-meyer","tag-keith-meyer","tag-pinellas-county","tag-second-district-court-of-appeal","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}