Former Florida Cop Charged with Killing His Ex-Girlfriend’s 3-Year-Old Maltese Poodle Using Rat Poison

A former Florida police officer is facing charges after authorities say he killed his ex-girlfriend’s dog.

Edwin Campuzano, 22, surrendered to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) on Friday, Jan. 16, according to a sheriff’s office news release. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant tied to a report filed in December 2025.

Campuzano is accused of poisoning a three-year-old Maltese Poodle named Milo, owned by Paula Fernandez, while she was out of town on vacation.

“He would continuously tell me that he didn’t like Milo, but I didn’t think he would ever do something like that,” Fernandez said during a press conference on Jan. 23.

Fernandez said she learned Milo had died on May 30, 2025, after receiving a call from a neighbor who had been checking on the dog while she was away.

“I’ll never forget that call. I’ll never forget that day,” she said. “I just felt my heart drop, and it just didn’t make sense because I made sure to say bye to him in the morning before our flight, and he was perfectly fine. He was happy.”

Fernandez and her family had been gone for about a week, she added. When they returned, she said, the home felt “empty” without Milo, and there were signs he had been ill.

“By the time we got back to the house, we came home to an empty house when we should’ve come home to Milo running up to us, greeting us,” Fernandez said. “In addition to that, there was blood on the floor, by the door, that we had to clean up because he [had been] vomiting.”

Fernandez also told reporters that Campuzano brought flowers to her family while they were grieving, something she initially viewed as a kind gesture.

“At that time, I thought it was a sweet gesture, but now to know that he’s the one responsible for Milo’s death is a pain that I can’t even describe,” she said.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said Milo had been healthy with no known medical issues before his death. Fernandez, he said, shared photos of leftover pellets found in Milo’s food bowl—pellets investigators allege were rodent poison.

As concerns grew, Fernandez arranged for a necropsy, the animal equivalent of a human autopsy, to determine how Milo died.

“She went to the veterinarian, asked them to perform a necropsy,” Chronister said. “She wanted to know why and how they died and that’s when it was revealed that they bled to death as a result of being poisoned.”

Chronister described the alleged act as calculated, adding that it was especially disturbing, he said, given the claim that the suspect later tried to comfort the family.

“Can you imagine someone’s state of mind to be that premeditated, that cruel, that deliberate to take the life of an animal and then at the same time want to comfort her and her family with flowers,” he said, adding, “Scary, I’m glad he was stopped now.”

Fernandez also said she obtained a copy of Campuzano’s credit card statement, which she believes shows he purchased poison from Tractor Supply two days before Milo was found dead.

“He died a painful death and he died alone,” Fernandez said. “I just hope that there’s some way we can get justice for Milo because he didn’t deserve this.”

She added that what troubled her most was how unexpected the allegations felt.

“The scariest part to me with all of this is that there were no signs,” she said. “He was well-liked, a completely sweet boyfriend to me. We hardly argued. There were no signs other than that he didn’t like Milo and I just summed that up to the fact that he wasn’t a dog person. He was a perfect boyfriend, that’s what makes this so much scarier.”

At the time of the incident, Campuzano was employed as a full-time officer with the Bartow Police Department, but is no longer with the agency, the sheriff’s office said.

Campuzano has been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals.

“Those who wear the badge are held to a higher standard, and when someone falls short of that responsibility, it reflects a serious failure of the values we are sworn to uphold,” Chronister said in the news release. “This innocent animal deserved care and protection, and the trust placed in him as a partner makes this loss all the more senseless.”

The HCSO did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on Monday, Jan. 26.