Pinellas County animal cruelty case behind new state law heads to appeals court

Man convicted in case behind 'Dexter's Law' back in court

The case that inspired Florida’s newest animal cruelty law is back in court today. FOX 13's Kailey Tracy reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The case that inspired Florida’s newest animal cruelty law was back in court on Wednesday. 

Domingo Rodriguez was convicted in February 2025 of aggravated cruelty to animals and unlawful disposal of bodies of dead animals after the mutilated body of his dog, Dexter, was found in a trash bag at Fort DeSoto Park.

Dexter was a four-year-old dog that Rodriguez adopted from Pinellas County Animal Services just a few days before the dog’s headless remains were discovered in May 2024.

Rodriguez was found guilty in the case and sentenced to one year and 60 days in jail, the maximum allowed under Florida law at the time. Rodriguez is appealing that decision. Rodriguez’s defense team argues the state failed to prove he was responsible for Dexter’s death and is asking for the conviction to be overturned.

PREVIOUS: Dexter’s Law among more than 100 laws in Florida taking effect January 1

Why this case drew outrage

More criticism followed over the summer when Rodriguez was allowed to bond out of jail while his appeal moved forward. Elizabeth Olson with the Animal Justice Taskforce said many people remain upset by that decision.

"We’re hurt because of what Dexter went through," Olson said. "This man doesn’t deserve to be on the street. He deserves to be in jail like he was convicted," Olson said.

Why was Rodriguez released?

The judge in the case explained that despite the extreme cruelty involved, Rodriguez met all the requirements for this bond request when it comes to the law, including that his appeal is in good faith.

Wednesday, Rodriguez sat in the courtroom in front of animal advocates. The judge verified he had complied with all of his release conditions, like wearing a GPS monitor, surrendering his license and passport and having no contact with animals or witnesses. 

What's next:

They’re still waiting for a response from the District Court of Appeal. His next court date is Feb. 4.

"It’s just aggravating that he's not back in jail," Robin Warniment, an animal advocate who has been at every hearing, said. "He was convicted by a jury and found guilty."

The new law

Rodriguez’s case led to a new Florida law, Dexter’s Law. It just went into effect January 1.

"This database will help animal advocates, it will help our shelters, it will help our volunteers who are adopting out animals not adopt an animal to somebody who's going to harm them," State Representative Linda Chaney (R-St. Pete Beach), who sponsored the law, said.

The law creates stricter penalties for certain animal cruelty crimes, and a statewide offender database to help identify those with a history of animal abuse.

"All it has is the names, which, that's not correct. It needs a picture, the date of birth, what they did, when they did it. So, it needs a lot of work," Warniment said.

Representative Chaney said the database is headed in the right direction, but that it has kinks they’re ironing out.

"It does not do what we kind of anticipated that it would do. So, we need to put more identifiers in there," Rep. Chaney said. "Right now, you put John Smith in the database and your sweet, elderly neighbor who's never owned an animal in his life may be in there. And the John Smith who has actually harmed animals will be in there. So, which John Smith do we not want to have adopt an animal?"

"What I learned from FDLE is it's not as easy as pulling over data from one county into their database. It's a very complex process. They say it is going to take them quite some time," Rep. Chaney said.

Chaney said in the meantime, they’re working on a quick fix. She has a phone call with stakeholders sometime this week.

"To get this where we fully want it to be, we may need to do some more legislation, but in the meantime, is there anything we can do, even if it's just a little bit. Is there anything we can to protect these animals, protect our communities? The other thing that we need is, we need our state attorneys to be a lot more aggressive in prosecuting animal abuse cases," Rep. Chaney said.

She also welcomed advice on improvements to the database from constituents. Rep. Chaney added shelters are also going to have to, in the meantime, do a little bit of research on people who are trying to adopt animals.