Coos Bay Man Found Guilty of Criminally Negligent Homicide
Amber LaBelle died after being attacked by a pit bull-mix at her Myrtle Point apartment.
Coos Bay Man Sentenced
UPDATE 11/12/22: Just over one year after a woman was killed by a dog that was under the care of her boyfriend, the man was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in connection to her death. On September 24, 2021, Amber LaBelle, then 42, was viciously attacked by a large dog that Jeremy Robertson had left at her home while he ran errands. On October 27, 2022, Robertson was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, a Class B felony, for the attack.
The dog, a male 120-pound pit bull-American bulldog-mix, had a history of violence, including attacking two children several months earlier in Springfield, a city over 100 miles away from Myrtle Point, where the dog attacked LaBelle, killing her. On November 10, Robertson was sentenced to two years and two months in state prison, to be followed by three years of probation upon his release. Robertson was also ordered to pay $1,750 to pay for the cost of LaBelle's funeral.
09/27/21: History of Aggression
The large dog that attacked and killed 42-year old Amber LaBelle was a 120-pound pit bull-American bulldog-mix, according to Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier. A police officer shot and killed the dog after the animal tried to attack him while he performed first aid on LaBelle. Both of LaBelle's daughters, ages 5 and 8, witnessed the vicious attack, Frasier said. This was not the first time this particular dog had attacked an individual either, according to the district attorney.
"We have received information that this is not the first incident where this particular dog had attacked other individuals," Frasier said. "It is our understanding that this dog attacked two minor children in Springfield in July of this year." Investigators have so far determined the dog was owned by Sara Nicholes of Springfield. "For some reason yet to be determined, she had placed the dog in the care and custody of a person named Jeremy Robertson," Frasier explained.
On the day of the attack, Robertson left the pit bull with LaBelle to run errands -- Robertson and the dog had spent the previous night at her apartment. "The dog had been put in a bedroom with the door shut and secured," Frasier said. Then LaBelle's ex-husband dropped off their children for visitation. LaBelle opened the bedroom door "and was promptly attacked by the dog," Frasier said. "The attack was witnessed by the two children." One was able to leave the apartment to get help.
Shuffling Dangerous Dogs
Though we have not commented on this issue in some time, the above scenario is quite common for dangerous dogs/dogs with bite histories. Nicholes placed her 120-pound biter into the care "and custody" of Robertson, LaBelle's boyfriend. Robertson couldn't leave the biter at his own home, he had to bring the biter to LaBelle's apartment, where she would also be taking care of her two young children the next day. The dog had previously bitten two minor children in July.
The only aspect missing from the story is which shelter agency adopted the biter out to begin with? According to Frasier, Nicholes resides in Springfield, which is 125 miles from Myrtle Point. Springfield is also in the greater Eugene area. The dog could have come from a number of Eugene animal shelters or rescues. The dog could, and probably did have, multiple owners prior to Nicholes as well. Dogs with bite histories often cycle through multiple owners and jurisdictions.
The hulking pit bull, with a hulking prong collar, that fatally attacked Amber LaBelle.
09/26/21: Woman Killed by Dog
Myrtle Point, OR - A 42-year old woman is dead after being violently attacked by a dog. The attack occurred Friday, September 24, at about 10:00 am in the woman's apartment in the 1700 block of Spruce Street. Police identified the victim as Amber LaBelle. Police said the dog was known to LaBelle, and it was not a random attack. The Reddit thread contains a screenshot of comments left on one of the news article threads, which strongly indicates the fatal attacker was a pit bull.
"Another neighbor was holding a huge pit bull back from trying to get at Amber more." -- Pit bulls typically "repeatedly" attack their victims.
"I immediately went to Amber," the commenter writes, "she was laying on the floor unresponsive. Blood was everywhere, I tried to locate all her injuries to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. An officer came and he and I carried her outside," the commenter writes. "I did everything I knew how to do from all of my training. The paramedics and officers, everyone worked together to help Amber." LaBelle was airlifted to the medical center at RiverBend, where she died of her injuries.
Audio dispatch log files from Myrtle Point Fire do not contain breed information, but they do portray a scene of chaos. God bless the police officers and fire crews who respond to these horrific life-threatening dog maulings, largely carried about by pit bulls. "I don't know if the dog is contained at this time," the dispatcher states. One person in the background yells, "This is insane!" An explosive, unprovoked attack by a pit bull is "insane," yet these attacks occur routinely.
Evening Updates
A late Sunday update by KEZI states the attack was perpetrated by a grey pit bull and that LaBelle was home with her two daughters at the time. Josef Dieckman, LaBelle's ex-boyfriend and the father of her children, spoke to KEZI. "One thing that I would want people to know is the very last thing she did on this Earth was save the lives of her children," Dieckman said. "I will be eternally grateful for that." LaBelle yelled for her girls to get out of the house when the dog first attacked.
According to neighbors, LaBelle did not own the pit bull. She was watching the dog for its owner, marking the fourth person to die under these conditions this year. In April, Jayden Henderson, 7, was killed while caring for her neighbor's two pit bulls in North Carolina. In June, Rebecca McCurdy, 28, was killed by two pit bulls while house sitting the owner's home in Oklahoma. Last month, Rhoda Wagner, 60, was killed by three pit bulls she was dog sitting in Pennsylvania.
The fatal dog attack occurred at this apartment building in the 1700 block of Spruce Street.
Listen to part of the audio dispatch log files from Myrtle Point Fire from Broadcastify.com.
View the DogsBite.org Google State Map: Oregon Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.Related articles:
08/05/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Killed by Pit Bulls She was Dog Sitting in Pennsylvania
06/26/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Dog Sitting Pit Bulls Found Dead in Osage County...
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
The police said that it was not a random attack? That is so nice of them to let us know that. If it was not a random attack, then what kind of attack was it? It was a non-random attack. Better than a scheduled attack, or a planned attack, or a training attack, or love attack or an erroneous attack. It was an artificial selection attack, is my best take on this. Just did what it was simply primarily bred to do. Thank Goodness that it was not a random attack. Such a comforting thought.
What kind of dog was it? It was a non-random fatal attack dog. Not the best kind of dog for a family pet, for those of us who can not be diagnosed with a pathological personality disorder.
Good thing they don’t just simply “get out” loose onto the public street. That would make the neighborhood unsafe, and that would make every single person in the neighborhood at elevated risk of grave threat. Yay!
I agree with the “not a random attack” police statement being so bizarre. Random means done without method, or unfamiliar/unspecified. Maybe it means not unfamiliar? In that case, pet sitting a potential killer is what happened. This one sounds particularly horrific with her girls in the apartment, too. So incredibly sad.
It wasn’t a random attack because she knew the dog – the dog was in her house. Why any mother would have a dog she doesn’t know in her house when she has 2 little children is something I don’t understand! Any dog that is in a strange place with strange people, especially noisy little ones, is in danger of attack the child. When you let a pit bull in your home you are accepting the danger. I’m glad she saved her girls.
You know what I find so disturbing is the numbers of website that recommend pit bulls for autistic children! I have an autistic child who is not mentally disabled ie “high functioning” as a matter of fact she’s graduating from UC Berkeley. She owns a dog that she begged for when she was in the 6th grade. I had took him to a dog trainer and asked her to test his temperament, and then I had him and her go through multiple puppy training classes and then adult dog training to try to help her understand and interact with her dog, and of course it was great for her to have to talk to other dog owners but despite all the efforts she still gets in his face, hugs him,kissed his nose while holding onto his head and a lot of other things that a dog that didn’t have a lot of patience and training and naturally calm with a good bite inhibition would have not been able to tolerate and despite the fact that she was in multiple programs to help her even as an adult she has meltdowns, that while no longer violent are traumatic for the dog and upsetting to deal with for the humans. Don’t forget this is a young woman who is getting A’s in hard science classes at a difficult university to even get accepted into. I’m thinking that we should have him put down because of his age and OA he’s having difficulties with pain and with dealing with her! He has been very aggressive toward her a few times (never biting or even snapping but growling and bearing his teeth) and I’ve had to interviein. I have talked to her again and again about the body language of him when he needs his space and upped his medication to try to reduce his pain but I am not making headway! And then I see these website saying that the pit bulls are great for autistic children! She has mild autism and has been very “challenging” for a dog that has never killed a human that I have found records of! They’re so irresponsible that it just makes me feel sick! Even highly trained service dogs suffer from stress by being paired with autistic children who have meltdowns and become violent towards their families and themselves and their pets! I have worked hard to manage her, to help her getting all of the best treatments, camps, pets and other things but autism doesn’t go away. Telling parents to get an APBT for their autistic child is one way to stop having your autistic child I guess but I don’t recommend it! Even Purina pro plan dog food is telling people this! I have written to them and if any of you could find it in your heart to help save an autistic child and their family from the trauma of a mauling would you please send them a message as well!
Social media is saturated with pit bull apologists and advocates. They all parrot the same talking points.
I think they mean that the dog didn’t come from outside having been loose in the neighborhood or off leash. It was in the home and the woman knew it was there.
What is insane is that these predictably deadly dogs are permitted as pet animals in any community. What’s insane is that every pit bull attack is considered an outlier when there is a clear pattern dating back over 150 years. What’s insane is the Mt Everest of LIES the shelters use in adopting out dogs they know should only be candidates for euthanization. What’s insane is the level of propaganda used for the Charles Manson of dogs. What’s insane is NOT passing BSL to prevent more killers from being born.
The pro pit bull movement is currently too strong to allow shelters to euthanize pit bulls.
Adopting a policy of killing all pit bulls is a sure way of losing a job.
So what is the solution? If the death toll gets high enough, maybe someone will start listening. I don’t board dogs. Nearly every dog I am asked to board is a pit bull or a pit mix.
I am sure she did not clear her pro bono dangerous dog breed sitting services with her landlord. I can only extend so much sympathy to a woman who put herself and her children in this much danger to have male companionship. I hope the landlord keeps the security deposit because it will take that and more to clean up after this bloodbath.
I’m with you on this, Christy. This is going to require a crime scene cleanup company.
What stood out to me was that multiple people were trying to stanch blood loss but it simply could not be done…Since pit bulls inflict deep ripping/shredding wounds in multiple places on the body it truly is a wonder everyone is not dying of blood loss…Pit bulls certainly don’t make EMTs’ job any easier — and cops coming to the scene are faced with mitigating an immediate life and death situation with deadly force for all involved including the EMTs…
…It is precisely, attacks (in this style) that should seal the deal AGAINST pit bull ownership…People are not allowed to keep “nanny bull oxen” in their homes — a domesticated animal specifically legislated against “on pain of death” if it attacked and killed (Exodus 21: 29)…So why the public safety pass on this so-called kind of domesticated animal?…
So Sara Nichols of Springfield moves her pit bull over 100 miles away to prevent euthanasia after it attacks two children two months ago? My guess is Jeremy Robertson is her ex-boyfriend and he knew the pit when it was younger. He would be the type of person to “help out” in this kind of situation. Amber LaBelle has poor taste in men and it got her killed and gave her kids PTSD that will follow them through life and give them a myriad of psychiatric, social, and health problems.
Agreed
As with many victims, Amber was also a victim of pit bull propaganda and misinformation. Have you noticed how pit bulls are constantly featured as lovable lugs all across the board: car commercials, in magazines, and TV news stories, ad infinitum. The children’s father described Amber as a great mom. I believe him and I believe she deeply loved her children. He said the last thing she did as the attack began was to yell to her girls to run outside. Her last act was to save them. I do not believe she knew anything about this dog’s history. Yes, she made a grievous error, just as Jayden’s mother did. Their stories haunt me. But I can’t tell you how many well-educated, accomplished people I know who refuse to believe these dogs are a menace. They’re not on this website. If not for Colleen’s expertise and tenacious search for the truth, many of us would not know all the facts either. There is a pit plague in this country and around the world. And, yet, and YET, most people still think pits are just dogs.
This quote is from the father of the two children in the apartment.
“ “There is no way, even if she was watching it, that she would’ve voluntarily and knowingly allowed a vicious dog, a violent dog, into her space not only with the kids there but around herself,” Dieckman said. ”. True or not, how horrific for those two children to see this. I cannot imagine. I hope the father can press charges against the current boyfriend or at least a civil suit.
Letting law enforcement do what they need to do right now.
I will never understand how people continue to keep dogs which have attacked before. Especially a pit bull which had attacked children! That thing should have been put down after the first attack. If it had been this attack would have never happened. Those poor girls wouldn’t have had to witness their mother being killed.
I wonder if the woman who gave it up and didn’t euthanize it when it attacked two children in July feels any remorse at all. Or one of those that will go to a page where they are talking about a death by pit bull and laugh.
Laugh are you serious im fucking devestated.and the one person you should be directing this to is Derrick Turner the breeder,trainer,and owner.thank you and our prayers are with the xhildren
I am going to comment about aggression’s relationship to neutering. I had some contact with an idiot who has a neutered male GSD that bites. This dog will be euthanized for aggression. The owner is claiming that neutered male dogs are less aggressive than intact males.
Neutering dogs reduces aggression. This is a wonderful excuse for shelters to adopt out neutered pit bulls. The dogs allegedly no longer bite since their testicles have been removed.
If 80% of male pit bulls in the USA are intact and 80% of the pit bulls that kill people in the USA are intact, how is neutering affecting male dog aggression?
If 35% of the killer pit bulls were neutered, that would verify that neutering increases killing in pit bulls.
This nonsense that neutered male pit bulls are not aggressive gives the shelters a reason to adopt these dangerous animals out. I wish it was possible to get correct information on all the killer dogs.
A friend had a GSD male which she had neutered for biting. He was destroyed for biting. He needed training and a responsible owner, not castration.
It’s well known that bulls, stallions, and roosters are aggressive. Intact male dogs are not dangerous in general.
It is obvious from the pictures from the previous owner, that the devil dog was not neutered, be that as it may. They can kill either way. The trend is to neuter later, which adds muscle and strength to their bodies anyway.
“Less” or “Less likely to be” aggressive does not mean not aggressive. Yes, geldings are generally less aggressive than stallions, but there are are definitely geldings that are way more aggressive than your average stallion and some stallions who show zero aggression at all.
There has been some evidence, via studies, that neutering (males and females) might increase incidents of biting and aggression. That the reproductive hormones affect more physiology and mentality, and more of the normal development of puppies than just the reproductive drive and seem to assuage neuroses in temperament.
Think how many lives would be saved if the “ban the deed, not the breed” folks practiced what they preached. Granted there are pits who kill the first time they bite a human but there are many cases of a “bite history” or “fight bust” dog going on to kill.
One more thing, anyone know how many shots it took to takedown this blockheaded mauler?
I can’t see one shot doing the job after seeing that pic.
I am glad the cops killed it so we can skip the “save butthead” routine this time.
If you look at the owner’s FB page, you’ll see lots of “sweet” (gross) doggie shots of the future killer. I would love to see it juxtaposed with the horrific attack. The idea of “getting licked to death” and “it’s how you raise them” evaporates. Looks like the woman who owed IT, slept with IT and poured on lots of affection. It doesn’t appear that she was training it to kill, although it came close to killing before IT’s final act. The only saving grace is this monster didn’t get to Amber’s little girls. But the collateral, psychological damage will last a lifetime.
Please excuse the misspelling of “DogsBite.org in my comment .
I agree with everything you write. As a journalist, I encountered my first dog attack story more then 20 years ago. I interviewed a couple whose son was mauled to death by two Rottweilers. He was waiting for his school bus, which was full of children who watched it unfold. Not much has changed as far as the media. I send stories to national news networks and get radio silence. “Inside Edition” will sometimes air dog attack segments. (Thank God for Judge Judy.) Until and unless the media takes this on, the dangerous dog plague will continue. When deadly baby seats, falling Ikea dressers injure/kill…it’s all over the news. But, as we know, more children die/injured at the jaws of these dogs. Colleen is one of a very few who is relentless and thorough in her reporting.
Ban pitbulls immediately.
Laugh are you serious im fucking devestated.and the one person you should be directing this to is Derrick Turner the breeder,trainer,and owner.thank you and our prayers are with the xhildren
It was pretty horrifying. My girls will have years of therapy ahead of them.
Yet it has been factually established that the same dog attacked 2 children in July in the city of Springfield and put them in the hospital
My oldest was found standing within reachable distance screaming at the dog, screaming for her mommy. We were initially told she ran to their room and climbed up on the top bunk.
My oldest was found standing within reachable distance screaming at the dog, screaming for her mommy. We were initially told she ran to their room and climbed up on the top bunk.
Agreed
Awesome! Prevention would be so much better than criminal justice but I think negligent homicide charges are very appropriate in cases of deaths caused by dogs.
I assume that the only reason he was able to be charged was because of those previous bites and the fact that he was hiding the dog from the authorities already. This is why it it is important to report every bite to the police and make sure they file a report about it.