The bench trial of an Oregon dog owner accused in the fatal mauling of a young boy began this week.
Koko Miller, 57, is charged with criminally negligent homicide, maintaining a dangerous dog and two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment in connection with the December 2023 attack that killed 6-year-old Loyalty Scott, prosecutors said, per Oregon Live, KPTV and KGW-TV.
On Dec. 3, 2023, Miller was watching her longtime friend’s grandson, whom she had agreed to take to school, when her two Great Dane–mastiff mixes attacked the child in her garage in Portland’s Parkrose Heights neighborhood, KGW-TV reported, citing trial proceedings.
The boy was pronounced dead at the scene, and Miller was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, Portland police previously said. Police said the two dogs involved were later euthanized, while a third dog inside the home was not involved.
“His death was avoidable, and at some level, predictable,” a prosecutor argued in court on Monday, Jan. 12, KGW-TV reported. Miller told police the boy opened the garage door and “he knew he shouldn’t have opened the door,” according to the outlet.
Miller’s attorney, Ryan Corbridge, said his client tried to fight one of the dogs during the attack “for what felt like an eternity,” per KGW-TV.
According to Corbridge, Miller “did everything she could to put herself between the dog and the child,” and when she was physically exhausted, she shouted for the boy to run — but he said he could not, the outlet reported. Corbridge said Miller then went to retrieve her firearm in an attempt to stop the dog. When she returned, the dog “trotted past her,” and only then did she realize the child had already died.
KPTV reported that a medical examiner found the boy suffered 25 to 50 cuts and had “fractures of basically all the bones in his face,” along with injuries to his neck.
Loyalty’s grandmother, Rena Scott, testified that she and Miller had been friends for many years and had an arrangement for Miller to take the boy to school before heading to work, KGW-TV reported. Scott said she had never seen the dogs behave aggressively, but believed they would be kept in their kennels while Loyalty was there.
“He was a very smart kid,” Scott said in court, per Oregon Live. “It didn’t matter how big or small the animal was, he loved them.”
Loyalty was also remembered by loved ones in a GoFundMe campaign as a child who “always had a smile on his face” and who could lift the mood of people around him.
The trial continues.
