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Matthew Savinovich, 28, of Norwood “systematically and brutally killed” his now-former flame's Chihuahuas by “slamming them against a wall” in her Lake Peekskill, NY home, Putnam County District Attorney Robert V. Tendy said Thursday, April 28.
Savinovich also admitted crushing and killing a ferret of hers by “intentionally dropping a mattress and box spring on top of it,” Tendy said.
The killings occurred “over the course of their relationship from December 2019 to November 2020,” the DA said.
Investigators working with local enforcement in Putnam County and their colleagues from several Bergen County towns assembled the case against Savinovich, who has a drug-related criminal history that stretches back more than a decade.
Savinovich had been freed under New Jersey's bail reform law for a robbery in Bergen County last August when he surrendered to Putnam County authorities in the animal cruelty case on Oct. 6, 2021.
Rather than risk trial, he took a deal from prosecutors, pleading guilty during a hearing in Carmel, NY, on Tuesday, April 26 to two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, one of torturing animals and one of attempted burglary.
“This is one of the worst examples of animal cruelty that I have ever seen” Tendy noted.
It also was an exhaustive case to crack, he said.
“There were no witnesses and no one knew what had happened or why,” the district attorney said. “The team did a phenomenal job.”
That included the Putnam County SPCA, its Detective Sgt. Kenneth Ross III, and Investigators Matthew Shelters and Paul Piazza of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, he said.
County SPCA Chief Ken Ross thanked police from Norwood, Northvale, Hackensack and Fair Lawn for their assistance, calling it “an invaluable resource.”
“Studies have shown that those who commit animal cruelty eventually commit crimes against humans,” the chief said.
Although Savinovich took the plea in exchange for leniency, he’s still looking at five years, minimum, when he’s sentenced on July 5, Ross said.
Savinovich still faces charges of robbery, credit card crime and various other counts stemming from an August incident in Fair Lawn.
SEE: Police: Repeat Offender Assaults Fair Lawn Liquor Store Manager, Arrested After Returning
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