Dog owners to be tried on murder counts in mauling

DETROIT — A Michigan couple was ordered Friday to stand trial on second-degree murder charges for allowing dangerous dogs to run loose, mauling a man to death as he jogged down a quiet country road July 23.

Sebastiano Quagliata, 45 and his wife, Valbona Lucaj, 44, of Metamora seemed resigned as Lapeer District Judge Laura Barnard announced that there was enough evidence that a jury should decide their fate.

As they were led away handcuffed in orange jail garb — unable to post $500,000 bonds — they turned to their family members in the back of the courtroom, many who were weeping.

Barnard, in her decision, said the dogs' history of violence — they had bitten two people prior to killing 46-year-old Craig Sytsma — as well as warnings by the family vet that the dogs were dangerous, was enough to send the couple to trial.

Sytsma's family has attended every hearing, along with the defendants' family.

The judge, acknowledging the grief in the courtroom, said, "This has has been a very difficult situation. My heart goes out to all the families, no matter what side."

Earlier in the hearing, Lapeer Animal Control chief Carla Frantz testified that her department responded to two reports of dog bites at the couple's home, once in May 2012, when a dog bit a woman, and again in November 2013, when the dogs attacked a man in his 70s as he walked down the road.

Frantz said she investigated the first bite in 2012, but did nothing but order the dog — a large Cane Corso — quarantined for 10 days.

"They were very cooperative people," she said.

The second dog bite did not wave red flags, she said.

"There was a year and a half between complaints," she said. The couple was issued a ticket for allowing the dogs to run loose, a civil infraction.

But when she heard about the fatal mauling on July 23, she said, "I knew of the address. I was not really surprised because of the breed of the dogs."