JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A dog found dead inside a car submerged in Julington Creek earlier this month has led to a felony animal cruelty charge against the dog’s owner after investigators determined the dog likely starved rather than drowned, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Max Dylan Barker, 25, of Jacksonville, was arrested Oct. 19 in the death of his dog, which crews found Oct. 10 while pulling his car out of the creek at the Hood Landing kayak launch, according to an arrest report. Investigators initially believed the dog drowned inside the car but later determined it died before the car ever drove into the water.
The case began with an anonymous call the morning of Oct. 10 about a car underwater at the end of the boat ramp, according to the report. Because the road to the ramp was flooded, a JSO officer flew a department drone over the creek and spotted “oil or gasoline” rising to the surface where the caller reported seeing the car.
The JSO Dive Team confirmed no one was inside before a tow company pulled the car from the water, the report states. But when crews broke the driver’s side rear window to use part of the car’s frame as an anchor point, the body of a brown pit bull mix floated out.
The dog appeared emaciated, and inside the car were leashes, toys, treats and a chain matching the one still around the dog’s neck, according to the report.
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A neighbor whose security cameras face the boat ramp gave an officer footage from overnight, the report states. The video shows a white sedan driving south on Hood Landing Road and into the creek around 2:13 a.m. A man climbs out the driver’s side window onto the dock, paces for several minutes, then goes back into the car to retrieve a white plastic bin. He then walks back and forth on the boat ramp for about 30 minutes before leaving.
Based on the video, investigators determined the driver made no effort to get the dog out of the car, which was registered to Barker, the report states.
An officer met with Barker the next day at a Gate gas station on San Jose Boulevard, where Barker told him the dog had died earlier Friday night, according to the report. He said he was upset and driving around trying to figure out what to do when he made a wrong turn, and his car slid off the boat ramp in the dark as he tried to turn around, the report states.
Barker told the officer the dog was inside the plastic bin and he went back into the car to retrieve it, according to the report. When the officer told him the surveillance video showed him removing an empty bin and asked what happened to the dog, Barker said he didn’t know and asked for a lawyer, ending the interview, the report states.
An officer with Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services recovered the dog, and necropsy results from the agency were consistent with “severe emaciation and prolonged nutritional deprivation,” according to a summary included in the arrest report.
The necropsy found the dog had lost a significant amount of weight and had pale internal organs and fluid in part of its lungs. Its stomach also contained objects that could be a sign it was scavenging because it didn’t have enough food, according to the findings.
The dog also had no significant amount of water in its windpipe, airways or stomach, according to the summary, which states that the finding supports the conclusion that the dog was already dead before it was in the water rather than having drowned.
An officer went to Barker’s home Monday to discuss the necropsy results, and Barker told him he always fed the dog and never starved him, and that the dog had struggled with worms in the past, the report states. When told the necropsy found no signs of worms or any other condition that would’ve contributed to its death, Barker said he didn’t understand and couldn’t explain further, according to the report.
Barker was arrested and taken to the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility, where he is being held on a $100,003 bond, according to jail records. He is also barred from possessing any animals, the arrest report states.
Court records do not yet show a specific attorney assigned to his case. HomeFetch has reached out to the Public Defender’s Office for the 4th Judicial Circuit for comment and will update this story with any response.
