Man Accused of Shooting Stepdaughter’s 1-Year-Old French Bulldog in the Face: ‘She Was Like Our Child’

More than 50 protesters gathered outside a New Jersey courthouse earlier this month to demonstrate against a man accused by police of shooting his stepdaughter’s 1-year-old French bulldog in the face last October.

The protest followed reports that the defendant, Jeffrey Lentz, declined a plea deal offered by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. Under the proposed agreement, Lentz would have served five years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to weapons possession and animal cruelty charges, according to News 12 New Jersey and Jersey Online.

With the plea rejected, the case is now expected to go before a jury.

Last year, NJ.com and News 12, citing police, reported that Lentz, 56, was arrested in November after investigators alleged he shot the dog, Ruby, while he and his wife were caring for the animal at their Berkeley Township home. Ruby belonged to Lentz’s stepdaughter, Nicole Guarino, and her husband, who were away attending a wedding.

“I trusted them. What daughter wouldn’t trust her parents?” Guarino told Jersey Online.

According to Jersey Online, authorities said Lentz initially claimed the dog had been hurt in an animal attack. Investigators later alleged that a veterinarian discovered a bullet lodged in Ruby’s jaw. Lentz was arrested days later and charged with animal cruelty, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and possession of a large-capacity magazine, the outlet reported.

Guarino and her husband, Nick, attended the hearing earlier this month where Lentz rejected the plea deal, according to Jersey Online. “She wasn’t property. She was family,” Guarino said, according to the outlet. “She was like our child.”

News 12 reported that Guarino and other protesters later returned to rally outside the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, calling for Lentz to receive the maximum possible punishment if convicted. Video aired by News 12 showed signs reading “Justice 4 Ruby” and others demanding a “maximum sentence.”

“All I want is my dog back and she’s not coming back,” Guarino told the outlet in a tearful interview outside the prosecutor’s office earlier this month. “This is all we can do, is to try to make sure her life mattered.”

Guarino and her husband also told News 12 they have not received an explanation from her mother and stepfather about what happened to Ruby while they were away.

“We just generally want to make sure that this could never happen again to anyone else with a fur baby at home,” Guarino’s husband told the outlet. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Lentz is due back in court on March 16, according to Jersey Online.