Dothan teen pleads guilty in fatal dog beating

Geneva County, Al.

A Dothan teenager pleaded guilty this week to beating a puppy to death with a metal pipe.

Geneva County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Tony Helms said James Spencer Yancey II, 19, of Dothan, pleaded guilty to the felony first-degree animal cruelty charge filed against him.

James Spencer Yancey II

Helms said Yancey entered a “blind” guilty plea to the charge, which means there was no agreed upon sentence as part of the guilty plea. Helms said Yancey will be sentenced on Dec. 6 for the class C felony crime, which carries a possible punishment of one to 10 years in prison.

Court records indicate Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Quattlebaum accepted Yancey’s guilty plea on Wednesday. Records indicate Quattlebaum remanded Yancey into sheriff’s custody pending a bail bond hearing.

Geneva County Sheriff’s deputies charged Yancey with beating a six-month-old Labrador retriever puppy named Bailey to death with a metal pipe in a field in Slocomb in November of 2010. The offense happened in a field not far from its owner’s home near Malvern.

Justin Kyle Goldsmith, 20, of Slocomb, was also originally charged but his case was no billed by the grand jury.