The Buckeye Police Department said a woman was leaving Saturday a house she shared with Jose Vega Meza, 21, in the suburbs of Phoenix after losing track of her dog. Before leaving her house, she opened a box and found her dog mutilated and headless inside.
The woman and her friends later said that Meza had tried to load a small box onto a moving truck without being seen.
When the woman confronted Meza about the box, she told the police that the 21-year-old was smiling at him.
Opening the box, the woman discovered her dead dog without a head inside.
Police said the woman only reported the incident on Sunday, and Meza was later arrested.
The 21-year-old was sentenced to two counts of animal cruelty and one criminal charge for alleged assault on another detainee.
