A local man was sentenced to prison Thursday, after pleading guilty to breaking into a Greenville home in April.
Adrian Obrian Jackson, 27, of Greenville, was also sentenced to a term in state jail after pleading guilty to hosting multiple dog fighting matches at his residence.
Jackson is one of six local residents charged in connection with the dog fighting operation and was one of four people indicted by the Hunt County grand jury in May on one count of burglary of a habitation. The indictment alleged the defendants stole jewelry, a television, currency and other items from a Greenville residence on April 16.
During a Thursday afternoon hearing in the 354th District Court, Jackson pleaded guilty to the burglary indictment and three information counts of dog fighting-participating in earnings/providing building. The charges alleged the dog fights were conducted at Jackson’s home on March 19, April 8 and April 12.
Under a plea bargain arrangement, Jackson was sentenced to seven years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division on the burglary charge, and two years in state jail on each of the dog fighting counts, with the sentences to run concurrently.
The Greenville Police Department arrested a total of six suspects — Jackson, Kavante Davis, 17; Dakalin Edwards, 18; Tivenn Lynn Edwards, Jr., 21; Caunte Howard, 17 and Carlton Daniel Jones, 21, all of Greenville — who had been identified as either participants or spectators in the alleged dog fight in the 3700 block of Polk Street.
Two of the dogs originally recovered by animal control later died from complications due to infection. A third dog identified in a video was returned to the rightful owner, who was not involved with the dog fights.
Several of those charged in the case allegedly appear on a video taken of the fights between pit bull dogs.
According to a criminal complaint, officers were dispatched on the evening of May 18 to a report of animal cruelty in the 1700 block of Gibbons Street. The officers found an allegedly severely malnourished pit bull dog, which also had suffered injuries believed to have occurred during a dog fight.
Witnesses at the location said the dog belonged at Jackson’s home in the 3700 block of Polk Street, where fights were conducted in the back yard.
Upon arrival at the residence, officers found no one home, but allegedly discovered another pit bull running loose and called the Animal Control Division to remove a total of two pit bull dogs from the location.
On May 22, officers investigating a burglary of a residence obtained warrants on five cell phones, including those belonging to Jones and Howard. The officers allegedly found five videos of the dog fights on Howard’s phone and one on a phone belonging to Howard’s cousin.