Man Holds Down Girlfriend While Pitbull Bites Off Her Nose

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Dog Owner Convicted In Attack

Canandaigua, Canada — In his closing statement Thursday, Ontario County District Attorney R. Michael Tantillo told jurors they had to decide which story they believed about the pit bull attack that left a former Geneva woman disfigured.

In the end, jurors believed that Damian Mateo, 27, commanded the pit bull to attack his former girlfriend and found him guilty of first-degree assault.

The defense had contended that it was an accident when the pit bull attacked the woman, Katrina Dahl, 24, during a Sept. 12 argument at her apartment.

Jurors could have found Mateo guilty of second-degree assault for recklessly causing the dog to attack Dahl, but after nearly four hours of deliberating they convicted him of the more serious charge.

Looking straight ahead, Mateo stood emotionless as the verdict was read.

His 20 relatives and friends who came to court to support him were almost subdued. After it sunk in, one of his brother’s clasped his hands together as if in prayer and looked at the floor for several seconds. Other family members embraced. His mother, Brenda Mateo, appeared in disbelief.

On the other side of the courtroom, Dahl sat quietly when the verdict was read. She and her family quickly left the Ontario County courtroom to a secured hallway.

After being escorted from the courtroom, many of Mateo’s relatives waited for him to come out and be taken to an Ontario County Sheriff’s Department vehicle for transport to the county jail, where he is being held without bail.

They called out that they loved him, and his mother told him she would visit him on Sunday.

Mateo will be sentenced at 9 a.m. April 12. He could be sentenced to five to 25 years in state prison.

Standing in the chilly spring air, they talked about their anger over the verdict. They blamed Dahl for agitating the dog by throwing a phone that hit Mateo in the mouth that night.

“My son didn’t have a criminal record and was never in trouble before,” his mother said.

To convict Mateo of first-degree assault, jurors had to believe that Mateo used the pit bull as a weapon to cause serious physical injury to her. Tantillo called it the “right verdict” afterward.

He plans to ask Ontario County Court Judge Craig Doran to impose “a lengthy sentence, not only because of the brutal nature of the injury that was caused by this guy, but his reaction was subhuman, as far as I’m concerned.”

Dahl had testified that Mateo motioned for the dog, named Rex, to attack her during the quarrel and the pit bull responded by first biting her left inner thigh. She also testified that she managed to get the dog out of the apartment, but Mateo let Rex back in before throwing her to the ground and holding her down, while the dog bit her face, causing a big hole where her nose had been. Mateo then took the dog and left the apartment without calling for help, she testified.

“His cowardly act after the attack made what he did even more reprehensible,” Tantillo said.

In his grand jury testimony, Mateo said he didn’t notice Dahl was injured and that he went to call the police to have Dahl arrested for throwing a phone at him and hitting him in the mouth.

Mateo family members believe Dahl lied on the witness stand. His friend Jessica Blood said that Mateo’s attorney caught Dahl changing her story three times in statements she gave police.

“If my son did it, he would have taken the time (in prison),” Brenda Mateo. “He insisted it was an accident.”

Before the verdict came down, jurors asked to see Dahl’s emergency room record and the criminal law definition for first- and second-degree assault; they wanted three sets of testimony read back to them, including what rebuttal witness Peter Borchelt, an animal behavioral expert, said in court Thursday morning.

Borchelt testified that he concluded Dahl became “a target” for the dog’s aggressive behavior because she was “nipped at” and scratched so many times during the month Mateo and Dahl were dating.

Several witnesses testified they saw bruises and bite marks on her legs and arms, caused by the dog. Her friend, Amy Love, also testified that she once heard Mateo command the dog to “get” Dahl when the three were about to leave for a party in Seneca Falls.

That kind of behavior by Mateo could “inadvertently” teach the dog to attack Dahl, Borchelt said, adding the pit bull was an aggressive dog that could be easily agitated.

After the decision, a group of five jurors were escorted to their cars by court attendants. None would comment about the verdict.

Tantillo pointed out it was a difficult case to get a verdict because jurors had to determine Mateo’s intention.

“They had to get inside the defendant’s head,” he said. “And that makes it a tough case.”