Lady Gaga often takes her dogs to award shows
A man who shot and injured Lady Gaga’s dog handler has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.
James Howard Jackson did not contest the verdict – similar to the guilty plea – to the charge of attempted murder that occurred during an attempted dog theft.
A US court heard that Ryan Fisher was walking with the singer’s three French bulldogs in Hollywood in February 2021 when Jackson shot him in the chest.
Mr. Fisher said he had to have part of his lung removed after the attack.
CBS News reported that he attended the court hearing on Monday, and said the shooting changed his life forever.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office called the attack a “cold-blooded act of violence.”
Several other charges Jackson faced were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Jackson and one of four other accomplices took two of the dogs after the shooting.
The third dog escaped and was later found by the police.
At the time, police said they believed the dogs were targeted because of their breed, not the identity of the owner.
The two stolen dogs were returned safely two days later, after Lady Gaga offered a $500,000 reward.
One of the accomplices to the crime, Harold White, pleaded guilty Monday to breaking the law that bars ex-convicts from possession of firearms. He is due to be sentenced next year.
White’s son, Gaylen Kishon White, and Lafayette Sean Willey pleaded guilty last year to second-degree burglary and were sentenced to four and six years in prison, respectively.
The woman who returned the two dogs, Jennifer McBride, was later charged with being an accessory to the attempted murder and her case is still pending, according to the attorney general’s office.
Jackson’s sentencing was delayed after he was wrongly released from prison last April, in what the US authorities described at the time as a “clerical error”. He was rearrested in the same month.