A California court has sentenced one of the three men charged with the armed robbery of Lady Gaga’s dog walker, which resulted in the theft of the singer’s dogs.
The news comes on the same day that one of those three accused, who was mistakenly released from jail due to a “clerical error” earlier this year, was recaptured by police.
Last year, Ryan Fischer was shot while walking Lady Gaga’s dogs near Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles. He was then attacked by two men who proceeded to steal two of the popstar’s French bulldogs, Gustav and Koji.
In the unfolding court case, one of the alleged offenders, Jaylin Keyshawn White, faced charges including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit robbery. While those charges have since been dropped, White did plead guilty to the charge of second-degree robbery during a court hearing on Wednesday (August 3), and received an immediate sentence of four years in state prison.
In court documents, as Rolling Stone reports, Fischer addressed jurors and Judge Richard Kemalyan, recounting the physical and emotional toll he endured as a result of the attack, which he said resulted in nerve damage and a collapsed lung. “You left me bleeding out and gasping for my life,” Fischer said, “I did almost die that night.”
Fischer continued: “You didn’t just steal dogs from me that night, you stole my livelihood… I’ve lost all my money. I’m in severe credit card debt, and I’ve become dependent on the kindness and donations of strangers, friends, and family just to survive.”
In 2021, White was arrested along with four other people for suspected involvement in the robbery. In April this year, fellow arrestee and alleged shooter James Jackson was mistakenly released from jail due to a “clerical error”.
In July, police offered a $5,000 (£4,100) reward for information pertaining to Jackson’s whereabouts, which culminated Wednesday (August 3) in his second arrest in Palmdale, California.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that it had arrested Jackson “without incident” after a raid by deputies and US Marshals, after which he was taken back into custody. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jackson pleaded not guilty when previously charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a robbery and assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Meanwhile, the woman who returned Gaga’s dogs, Jennifer McBride, was also arrested in 2021 on suspicion of acting as an accessory to the theft. She had reported that she found the dogs and responded to a reward email to return them, and faces one count of receiving stolen property.
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