Nearly two years after two pitbulls mauled her, leading to the removal of her left arm below the elbow, 10-year-old Erin Ingram told a DeKalb County State Court jury Thursday she still has nightmares.
“It’s like my other arm is getting bitten off by other animals,” said Erin, her cherubic face the only visible area without scars from the attack. “It’s like it happens again.”
Erin was attacked in March 2010 in front of her home while waiting to play basketball with friends after school.
Dog owner Twyann Vaughn has been charged with two counts each of reckless conduct, violation of the county’s vicious dog ordinance and failure to have the dogs immunized for rabies. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
The trial began Wednesday when Solicitor-General Sherry Boston played a 911 call in which a neighbor and Erin could be heard screaming in the background. A gun shot from DeKalb Police Sgt. R.B. Peeler followed, killing one dog and ending the attack. The second dog, a pitbull mix, was later captured and euthanized.
Erin and her father, Tommie Ingram, testified Thursday about the effect on the attack on the family, which included her fear of her father’s pitbull.
“She never started to go directly outside until we moved,” Tommie Ingram said. “I couldn’t even get her to sit on the porch.”
As family members sobbed, Erin spoke shyly and clearly about her experiences. Soccer is her favorite sport, she said, because basketball is no longer an option with just one weakened arm.
Erin said she spent a month in intensive care and another month in hospital rehab, she has endured 10 major surgeries with likely more to come.
“I had to relearn how to eat, to walk, to write, to do a lot of things,” Erin said.
Gerald Griggs, Vaughn’s defense attorney, challenged the notion that Vaughn could have known the dogs would attack, calling the situation “an unfortunate accident.”
Marquis Edwards, Vaughn’s son, 17, cried when showed a photo of the family’s Staffordshire terrier named Sandy after it was shot and killed.
Erin’s testimony that she had only been around the dogs just once before was contradicted by Edwards, who described his pets as constant companions during neighborhood play. Edwards also disputed earlier testimony from a neighbor, 12, who said the dogs had bit him.
“As much as I had the dogs around me and around them, no one ever told me they were scared,” Edwards said. “They were trained.”
The attack and ensuing trial has drawn the attention of a local politician. On Thursday, state Rep. Earnest “Coach” Williams said he wanted to address the issue of dog attacks when the Legislature convenes next week.
Williams, D-Stone Mountain, proposed banning vicious dogs in Georgia in 2005 but couldn’t generate enough support for it.
A pending bill in the Georgia House calls for changing the animal cruelty laws, and could easily include language making it a felony for people who have dogs involved in an attack, Williams said.
“It should be a felony for owners not being responsible,” Williams said. “That will be good for all of Georgia.”
Closing arguments are expected Friday, when the case will head to six jurors.
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