dme court

A Butler man was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 9, for breaking into the home of a woman who rebuffed his advances and taking and killing her dog last year.

Joseph W. Hillard, 28, was sentenced to serve 8 to 23 1/2 months in Butler County Prison followed by 24 months of probation, pay $700 in fines, complete 25 hours of community service, continue his mental health treatment, not to own or possess animals and have no contact with the victim.

Common Pleas Judge Joseph Kubit included an order that Hillard can be released from prison when a parole plan is put in place.

Hillard has been held in the jail since Jan. 30 in lieu of $100,000 bail, which was set the day after he was arrested by Butler police.

Defense attorney Michael Zunder said Hillard already has served the minimum prison sentence, and space for him in a treatment facility won’t be available until Wednesday, but the parole plan should be completed by then.

Hillard’s sentencing hearing was scheduled for Sept. 11, but it was continued to Thursday. The woman who owned the dog, Chyanne Callender, addressed Hillard at the Sept. 11 hearing, but didn’t attend Thursday’s hearing.

In a February interview with the Butler Eagle, she said her parents gave her the dog, a pug named Lexi, as her 13th birthday present. She said she moved out of her parents’ home with Lexi seven years later when she was 20.

She said she and Lexi were inseparable until Jan. 5, 2024, when Callender came home and found Lexi missing. About a year later, she said she found out Hillard confessed to taking and killing her dog.

Callender said she met Hillard on a dating site in 2023, and they became friends with no intentions of dating. She said she removed Hillard from her life after he made repeated advances.

She said she felt like Hillard wouldn’t take no for an answer about pursuing a relationship. Hillard identified Callender as his ex-girlfriend in his confession, according to an affidavit.

Police said Hillard confessed to entering the home through an open window, taking the dog, beating it, killing it and disposing of it in woods behind Rock Ann Haven in Butler Township. Callender said her dog would have turned 11 in February.

Hillard pleaded guilty to felony charges of burglary and aggravated cruelty to animals and a misdemeanor charge of tampering with evidence.

For the burglary charge, he was sentenced to 8 to 23 1/2 months and fined $200. For the cruelty charge, he was sentenced to concurrently serve 4 to 12 months in prison and fined $500. He was sentenced to 24 months of probation for the tampering with evidence charge. Hillard was sentenced remotely from the jail.