Pit Bull Owner Faces Up To 6 Years For Fatal Attack

ELIZABETH, Colo. -- The owner of three vicious pit bulls faces up to six years in prison for the fatal mauling of a woman in November.

Jacqueline McCuen, 33, of Elbert County, pleaded guilty in District Court Friday to being the owner of a dangerous dog causing death.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a felony count of criminally negligent homicide and other misdemeanor counts in exchange for the plea, which mandates prison time, said district court spokesman Michael Knight.

Sentencing will be Dec. 15.

McCuen was charged after the death of Jennifer Brooke, 40, who was attacked by the three dogs while she walked home to feed her horses last December. Prosectors added two additional charges against McCuen for other attacks by her dogs. The dogs had attacked a jogger seven months before Brooke's death.

"We just felt that it was more a just result because of the previous incident, stories from other neighbors and the dogs being aggressive and getting out," Knight said.

Prosecutors said McCuen's pit bulls attacked Brooke's husband, Bjorn Osmunsen and later attacked Clifford Baker, one of Brooke's neighbors, the day she was killed.

Baker's teenage son managed to wound the dogs with a shotgun. An Elbert County sheriff's deputy and two Elizabeth police officers eventually killed the animals.

Defense lawyer Michael J. Andre said he and McCuen feared she would have faced a longer sentence if convicted by a jury.