Erick Chinchilla Lopez’s trial was scheduled to begin Monday for a fatal attack his unrestrained dog unleashed on a 7-year-old girl yards from his mobile home.
But less than two weeks shy of the Sept. 9 trial date, Lopez pleaded no contest last month to negligent homicide as part of a plea agreement that ostensibly spared him prison time, according to 19th Judicial District Court records.
A district judge handed down a suspended five-year sentence that Lopez won’t be required to serve at hard labor unless he gets arrested again or otherwise violates the terms of his three-year probation.
Sadie Davila, a first grader at Woodlawn Elementary, suffered lethal injuries from several bites to her face and skull when Lopez’s pit bull mauled her as she played in her family’s front yard on Jan. 6, 2023. The attack happened at a trailer park in the 25000 block of Kendalwood Road, a secluded section along the Amite River in the southeast corner of Baton Rouge just off Hoo Shoo Too Road.
East Baton Rouge detectives said Davila was about 150 yards from Lopez’s doorstep when the mauling unfolded. One of her relatives tried to stop the dog attack by hitting the pit bull with a walking cane, but couldn’t manage to save the girl.
She was rushed to a hospital and died there hours later. Medical examiners who ruled the death accidental attributed it to blunt and sharp force injuries from the mauling, according to deputy reports.
The pit bull still had the child’s blood on its face and mouth when East Baton Rouge Animal Control officers captured it the night of the attack. The animal was euthanized later that night.
The animal was not on a leash before the attack. Lopez told detectives he wasn’t home at the time of the mauling, but admitted that he regularly allowed his dog to roam freely in the trailer park and throughout the rural neighborhood, deputies said.
Three days after the attack, District Judge Fred Crifasi ordered Lopez to move out of the Kendalwood Road mobile home and find a new place to live as a condition of his bond.
The judge maintained that restraining order as one of the conditions of Lopez’s probation. According to court records, he is not allowed to return to the premises where the attack took place, and he can have no contact with Davila’s surviving relatives.
Crifasi also ordered Lopez to attend a responsible dog ownership course and prohibited him from owning any animals for the duration of his probation period.