Vincent Lemark Burrell left animals in appalling conditions, Paulding District Attorney’s Office said, with authorities saying “they were not fit for humans, much less dogs”

Summary

Vincent Lemark Burrell, 57, was sentenced to 475 years in prison for running a large-scale dogfighting ring in Paulding County, Georgia.

Authorities discovered 107 malnourished pit bulls, many tied to trees or heavy chains without food, water, or shelter. Some dogs had teeth forcibly removed or severe scarring from fights.

Investigators also found training equipment and dogfighting paraphernalia. Burrell was convicted on 93 counts of dogfighting and 10 counts of animal cruelty.

All rescued dogs were placed in rehabilitation centers for care and recovery.

  • talEnglish
    271·
    1 day ago

    So, two points. First, it sounds like he’s expected to get a reduction on appeal:

    https://www.animals24-7.org/2025/02/02/dogfighter-gets-475-years-more-than-all-other-perps-since-vick-combined/

    Record tough sentence of Vincent Lemark Burrell is almost certain to be reduced on appeal

    Second, newspapers are often kind of loose in their description and describe a cumulative sentence in years, as it sounds more-exciting, when it consists of multiple terms to be served concurrently rather than consecutively and effectively is a lot less than that. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case here.

    Vincent Lemark Burrell, 57, was given the weighty sentence in Paulding County after a jury found him guilty of 93 counts of dog fighting and 10 counts of cruelty to animals, the Paulding District Attorney’s Office said on Friday.

    So he’s got 93 counts of dog fighting, and 10 counts of cruelty to animals.

    The article says that this is in Georgia.

    goes looking for Georgia sentencing guidelines

    https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-17/chapter-10/article-1/section-17-10-10/

    (a) Where at one term of court a person is convicted on more than one indictment or accusation, or on more than one count thereof, and sentenced to imprisonment, the sentences shall be served concurrently unless otherwise expressly provided therein.

    (b) Where a person is convicted on more than one indictment or accusation at separate terms of court, or in different courts, and sentenced to imprisonment, the sentences shall be served concurrently, one with the other, unless otherwise expressly provided therein.

    (c) This Code section shall apply alike to felony and misdemeanor offenses.

    (d) This Code section shall govern and shall be followed by the Department of Corrections in the computation of time that sentences shall run.

    It sounds like this was a single court session and multiple counts. So I’d guess that (a) probably takes effect, and I’d guess that he has a metric shit-ton of terms of prison to serve, but he serves them concurrently.