Man smoked drugs before killing puppy

HOUSTON — Witnesses said a man who beat a puppy to death before trashing a home had run out of the synthetic drug Spice before his rampage began.

Kory Campbell, 22, of Houston, was arrested on Squire Drive Friday where Alaska State Troopers found him hiding in a bathroom. Troopers charged him with criminal mischief, cruelty to animals and violating his probation.

According to an affidavit Trooper Joshua Varys filed in the case against Campbell, troopers first heard about the incident with the puppy at 11:06 a.m., Sept. 12. A woman who lived in the home with Campbell said she told her son about the puppy’s demise, and he in turn called troopers.

The son also “reported that Campbell had a large knife,” Varys wrote.

By the time troopers got there, though, he was gone. Varys surveyed the scene, noting glass scattered about and two smashed guitars, a Gibson Les Paul and an acoustic model.

“On the kitchen counter near the sink I observed a small black Lab (type) puppy curled up,” according to Varys’ report. “The puppy was dead. I observed the glass door to the kitchen oven was shattered into pieces and an exterior window that was broken.”

Varys talked to the homeowner’s son, who had armed himself with a baseball bat in case Campbell returned.

The next day Varys talked to the woman Campbell lived with who’d reported his rampage.

“The night before Campbell had been smoking Spice and had ran out. (She) said that Campbell got agitated and extremely angry. (She) said Campbell began throwing and beating his 2-month-old puppy named Sage,” Varys wrote.

Campbell slammed the dog against the walls and ceiling. The puppy was used to break the window in the oven door.

The woman told Varys that the beating lasted about 30 minutes before the puppy died.

“(She) said the puppy didn’t do anything wrong,” Varys said. “(She) said Campbell told her it was ‘either you or the dog.’”

She couldn’t get him to stop so she waited until he fell asleep and then left. On the phone later he told her he was going to smash the guitars.

The woman had previously been the victim of Campbell’s domestic violence. In fact, he was on probation for that assault when this current incident occurred.

Campbell was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

His bail was withheld until he made his first court appearance on Saturday, at which point it was set at $2,500 and he was ordered to find a third party to watch him before he can be released. As of Monday afternoon, online jail records still listed as an inmate.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.