OREGON DOGNAPPER FOUND GUILTY BY POETIC JUDGE

When JaJuane Deshawn Etheridge lied about robbing an elderly couple of their puppy Harpo, Clackamas County Circuit Judge Susie Norby came forth with some poetic justice

BarkGrowlBite | July 23, 2014

On Monday, Clackamas County Circuit Judge Susie Norby found JaJuane Deshawn Etheridge, 24, guilty of robbery, theft, unlawful use of a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Back in October 2012, James and Patricia Steele, a retired couple of English bulldog breeders, agreed to meet Etheridge in the parking lot of Clackamas Town Center where he was supposed to purchase Harpo, one of their bred puppies. When they met Etheridge he snatched Harpo, valued at $2,000, from them at gunpoint, telling them he would not hesitate to kill them. As the dognapper fled, James Steele was able to jot down his license number. Etheridge gave Harpo to his girlfriend Elizabeth Shaw as a birthday gift for her daughter. The gun he used to rob the retired couple belonged to Shaw who had purchased it for protection.

As Shaw, her daughter and Etheridge were watching television, a TV news reporter described the dognapping. Shaw promptly called the cops and after a three-hour standoff with a SWAT unit, the asshole surrendered. The cops found Harpo stuffed in a suitcase when they searched Shaw’s apartment. They found the dognapper’s car nearby. And later, investigators found one of his fingerprints on Shaw’s gun.

In the face of such overwhelming evidence, Etheridge told Judge Norby that he had been set up. He claimed not to have been at the Town Center parking lot that day. He said he asked some friends to get him a dog that he could sell to his girlfriend. He said that when his friends told Shaw, she gave them her gun and suggested they use it to rob the Steeles of Harpo.

While he was in jail, the authorities taped a number of phone calls he made to Shaw in which he kept pressuring her to not cooperate with police, to deny knowing the dog was stolen and not to testify against him. Against the advice of his attorney, the idiot insisted that the phone calls be introduced into evidence at his trial.

Judge Susie got a bit miffed at Jajuane over his obvious lies. The Oregonian quoted the judge as follows:

"We do not have ... any reasonable alternative explanation for the many incriminating circumstances that converged against him. The inescapable conclusion from the many phone calls and the absurdity of the defendent's testimony on the witness stand is that (Etheridge) will tell any lie, to anyone, at any time, to try to get out of the consequences of his actions."

Before pronouncing Jajuane guilty, Judge Susie bestowed the following poem on the lying dognapper:

You lied and lied; I can't put that aside.
It was your car; you went too far.
You hid the pup; the jig was up.
You got rid of the gun; your game is done.

Etheridge will be sentenced on August 1. Steve Mayes of the Oregonian believes Judge Norby will deal harshly with the sorry asshole when she sentences him. Mayes penned the following poem:

The defendant should expect the worst.
That much was made clear from the first.
The judge's words were dire.
You sir, she said, are a liar.