A city detective choked up on the witness stand Friday as she described the moment she spotted a young pit bull — like her own pet, Blu — engulfed in flames on a West Baltimore street.
Detective Syreeta Teel testified that she leapt from her squad car and smothered the blaze with a sweater, while the female pup, later named "Phoenix" by rescue workers, wailed.
That account set the tone for the first day of testimony in the trial against teenage brothers Travers and Tremayne Johnson, who are accused of dousing the dog in accelerant and setting her on fire on May 27, 2009.
The proceedings are expected to be emotional for onlookers, who will repeatedly hear about Phoenix's trusting nature, sweet disposition and the pain endured for days before euthanasia. One juror was moved to tears Friday. And the case could be difficult for prosecutors, who acknowledge they have little physical evidence to present.
Teel left the sweater, which might have provided traces of accelerant, on the sidewalk, testimony revealed. The scene was never secured. The police crime lab was never called. And a treating veterinarian was never interviewed in the arson investigation.
"The Baltimore City Police Department completely botched this," said Assistant Public Defender Karyn Meriwether, who represents Tremayne in the case. It was only after public pressure mounted that officers acted, Meriwether said, and arrested the troubled twins because they "had to put somebody in those [defense table] seats."
The abuse of Phoenix drew national attention and strong reactions — unlike much violent crime against humans. Hundreds of people donated thousands of dollars to catch the dog's attackers, and the city created an Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force to analyze the law enforcement response to such incidents, deemed flawed in a report last year.
"There are no fingerprints in this case" or much in the way of "scientific evidence," Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Rallo acknowledged during opening statements to the jury of seven women and five men.
Instead, she and her partner, prosecutor Janet Hankin, are largely relying on officer interpretations of grainy surveillance video to make the state's case, as well as the word of witnesses — including a woman who the defense says came forward for a reward that swelled above $25,000.
Rallo described the fateful day in detail, based on a video account captured on a police CitiWatch camera.
A dog walked swiftly along the street, a long piece of rope dangling from her collar, Rallo said. The animal approached a man, dropped her head, "wiggled her little body" and was led by the rope to two others standing on the corner of Presbury and North Calhoun streets.
"He handed the little dog over to the defendants," Rallo said. "Within minutes, the little dog was engulfed in flames."
The jury was shown a portion of the video, with Phoenix obscured by a clump of trees. Teel's police car was parked midstreet, and smoke hung in the air at camera level. It was impossible to make out the animal.
The dog was burned on more than 95 percent of her body. Veterinarians would later find that her corneas had melted, the inside of her mouth was torched, her footpads had sloughed off, her skin had peeled back and her kidneys had begun to fail.
"On a scale of one to 10," her pain level was "10," said veterinarian Jennifer McGough, who treated Phoenix at a Pennsylvania emergency animal center for several days. The dog had puncture wounds on her neck and a leg, as if she'd been in dog fights before, but she showed no aggression.
"The degree of pain she was in was beyond belief," McGough said, yet Phoenix "was just a lovely dog throughout the experience."
After five days, Phoenix was put down, once doctors determined that her kidneys were failing and she couldn't recover.
Police later said they identified the Johnson brothers, who will turn 19 next week, from the video footage that the jury hasn't yet seen. Baltimore Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill declined media requests Friday to provide a copy of the footage while the trial is under way, but said the recording would be made available afterward.
Three males can be seen in the footage standing with a brown-and-black dog, according to a June 5, 2009, police report that claims one of them clearly kicked the animal.
"A short while later, two of the males could be seen running from the alleyway at a brisk pace," the report states. "Also in the same footage, the dog, completely engulfed in flames, could be seen falling into the street in agony."
Travers and Tremayne Johnson, 17 at the time, were later identified by "a reliable confidential informant" and anonymous citizens, the report said.
Both teens have juvenile records and were initially charged in juvenile court. They were later indicted as adults on the animal cruelty charges, which carry a maximum prison sentence of three years.
Travers has since been arrested on attempted-murder charges. His arraignment in that case was set for Thursday but postponed because of the snowstorm.
His lawyer in the Phoenix case, Sharon May, said he did not hurt the dog.
The case resumes Monday morning and is expected to last through midweek.