Three pit bull owners charged in deaths of two babies & a senior citizen

One of the pit bull owners was already facing a murder charge

HOUSTON & WICHITA FALLS, Texas;  JACKSONVILLE,  North Carolina;  OROVILLE, Washington––Pit bull owners in two Texas cities and North Carolina face felony charges for dog attacks that killed two babies and 65-year-old Harriette Phillips.

Phillips,  of Houston,  Texas,  was fatally mauled by her neighbor’s three pit bulls while apparently trying to fix a fence that the pit bulls who killed her are believed to have damaged.

Phillips’ neighbor Marshall Garrett,  38,  already facing charges for allegedly killing 69-year-old Alton Joseph Martin with a punch on October 29,  2024,  was reportedly hit on April 9,  2025 with three counts of attack by dog resulting in death.

Owner “was warned his dogs were loose”

Garrett “was warned his dogs were loose,  and then they killed” Phillips,  reported Mitchell Willetts for the McClatchy news syndicate.

Garrett “called police after seeing Phillips on the back porch of her home,  covered in blood,”  Willetts reported.

“Police said the dogs — named Boosie, Cleo and Sophie — broke through a fence and entered Phillips’ yard on March 23,  2025,   records show,”  Willetts continued.

“The dogs had caused trouble before.  A neighbor texted Garrett at 10:20 a.m. on the day of the attack to warn him his dogs escaped, police said.

“Not only were the dogs running free in Phillips’ yard,”  Willetts paraphrased,  “they were now trying to dig out of her yard and into the neighbor’s,  the text read.

“Digging holes on my side of the fence”

Reportedly said the text,  “Morning, Marshall,  I noticed your dogs are starting to go to our neighbor’s backyard,  and now,  they are digging holes on my side of the fence.”

“Garrett responded,”  Willetts added,  “saying,  ‘Oh lord,  I’m about to get it resolved.’”

Phillips was fatally attacked,  however,  about eight hours later.

Detailed Willetts,  “In video obtained by investigators,  she can be seen stepping out from the back door of her home and looking around, as if ‘scanning her backyard looking for something,’ records said.

“With a hammer in her hand”

“With a hammer in hand,  Phillips walked over to the section of fence where the dogs had gotten through earlier in the day,  police said.  She caught the attention of the dogs and they darted through the gap,  video showed.

“She’s seen ‘moving fast’ toward her house,  but the dogs are faster.  Phillips is heard screaming ‘help,  help’ as the three dogs start biting her,  and she fights back with the hammer,  taking swings at them before she falls to the ground and the dogs continue fatally attacking her,  police said.”

Finding Phillips dead,  pit bull owner Garrett called police.  All three pit bulls were euthanized.

Added Willetts,  “Garrett already has an established criminal record prior to this incident.  He and a female suspect,  Latrecia Nicole Washington,  50,  were charged with murder last year when they fatally assaulted a man outside a Family Dollar store,  according to court records.”

Punched 69-year-old in the back of the head

Elaborated Megan Forrester for ABCNews,  “On October 29,  2024,  Garrett approached 69-year-old Alton Joseph Martin from behind and punched him in the back of the head,  according to court records,”  after Washington allegedly held a knife to Martin’s throat and hit him in the back of the head with the butt of the knife.

Continued Forrester,  “The altercation appears to have stemmed from a dispute over whether jewelry Martin had sold to Washington was authentic or fake.  Martin died from his injuries, court records said.

“Garrett was arrested for this crime and was previously released on bond, according to court records,”  Forrester finished.

Briahn Hawkins of Fox 26 in Houston reported that Garrett told police that “He was called by a friend to help his friend’s mother (Washington) after someone took money from her.”

Couple charged in pit bull death of two-year-old

Willetts on January 29,  2025 reported the arrests two days earlier of Deidre Wheeler and her husband Lacharles Ramsey in Wichita Falls,  Texas,  two days short of a month after their pit bull killed two-year-old Anaya Eyvelle Davis.

Davis at the time was believed to have been the 71st dog attack death of 2024.  She is now known to have been the 75th,  and the 55th killed by pit bulls.

(See Texas pit bull victim Anaya Davis, 2, is record 71st U.S. dog attack fatality of 2024.)

Recounted Willetts,  “Wheeler told police she had been watching the toddler [Anaya Davis] and the toddler’s 8-month-old sibling,  as well as six other children at the home ranging in age from 6 to 11 years old.  The toddler and the 8-month-old weren’t Wheeler’s,  but she had agreed to babysit them after dropping their mother off at work that morning,  according to police.

“Couldn’t remember how dog got out,  because she wasn’t there”

“Wheeler said she was home when the dog burst from its kennel and that she acted quickly to get the 8-month-old to safety,  then pulled the dog off the toddler [Anaya Davis] with help from her husband,  documents read.

“She stated she couldn’t remember how the dog got out because it happened so fast,” according to investigators.

“However,”  Willetts continued,  “police say the reason Wheeler couldn’t remember is because she wasn’t there,  and neither was her husband.”

A Child Protective Services investigator “interviewed the children and learned that Wheeler and Ramsey had left the home to take their 16- and 19-year-old daughters to an event,  documents read,”  Willetts narrated.

Left 11-year-old in charge of seven other children

“They put the next oldest,  their 11-year-old daughter,  in charge of the seven other children at the home while they were gone.

“The 11-year-old started to fix dinner for the children and had called her mom to see when she would be back because the children were getting out of control,”  Willetts summarized.

“During this conversation,”  Willetts described,  the pit bull “broke out of the kennel.”

The other children “grabbed the 8-month-old,  but the dog then attacked the 2-year-old.

“The attack continued,”  Willetts said,  “until Wheeler and Ramsey made it home and got the toddler [Anaya Davis] away from the dog,  according to investigators.

“Not an isolated incident”

“The children also told investigators this wasn’t an isolated incident,  that a year earlier the dog had escaped from the kennel and bitten their 5-year-old brother,”  Willetts mentioned.

Wheeler and Ramsey were were charged with endangering and abandoning a child.  Wheeler,  additionally charged with injury to a child,  had bond set at $450,000.  Bond for Ramsey was set at $300,000.

The pit bull was euthanized,  KFDX television news in Wichita Falls reported.

Oakley Letto Johnson

The death of Anaya Davis was reprised to a considerable extent by the January 10, 2025 death of 34-day-old Oakley Letto Johnson,  son of Banjamin Johnson,  who was not charged,  and Frankie Lilitu Johnson, 20, who was charged with second degree murder and negligent child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury.

The arrest warrant,  issued on January 30,  2025,  stated that,  “The defendant unlawfully and willfully did fail to confine her animal, a black and white female American pit bull terrier,  in accordance with the instructions of Onslow County Animal Services,  resulting in the fatality.”

“Johnson was taken to the Onslow County jail and is under a $100,000 bond,”  reported WITN in Jacksonville.

The name “Lilitu,”  incidentally,  is not a common first name,  middle name,  or surname anywhere in the world,  but occurs in Mesopotamian and Hebrew mythology as the identity of a female demon who is often described as a vampire,  and/or as an incarnation of Lilith,  the supposed first wife of Adam who in non-Biblical versions of the Book of Genesis was banished from the Garden of Eden.

Lilith does not actually appear in the Torah or the Bible.

Keith Huckvale

The most recently reported U.S. dog attack fatality of 2025,  Keith Huckvale,  65,  of Oroville,  Washington,  actually occurred on April 2,  2025,  before the previously reported deaths of two-month-old Zaelynn Elizabeth Louise Grove on April 3,  2025 in Brownstown,  Indiana;  seven-month-old Eliza Renee Lynn Turner on April 9,  2025 in Columbus,  Ohio;   and 53-year-old Oliva Mora Regalado, 53,  and four-year-old Evelynn Luz Lopez on April 14,  2025 in Huntingburg, Indiana.

Huckvale,  like Regalado,  appeared to have died from a heart attack or stroke under the stress of trying to stop a pit bull attack.

Huckvale collapsed while trying to separate his own dog from the roaming pit bull,  who had previously been designated dangerous after biting off one of Huckvale’s fingers.

Body count heads for new record

The combined 2025 U.S. and Canada dog attack fatality toll now stands at 29,  27 in the U.S.,  one each in Manitoba and Alberta.  Twenty-four of the U.S. deaths were by pit bull.

Four fatal dogs attacks,  including both of those occurring in Canada,  were apparently not witnessed,  leaving the dogs unidentified by breed.

Twenty-nine dog attack fatalities and 24 pit bull attack fatalities would both have been record tolls for a full year,  U.S. and Canada combined,  as recently as 2009.

The current known records are 75 dog attack fatalities,  74 in the U.S.,  one in Canada,  set in 2024,  with 52 by pit bull,  seven short of the record 59 by pit bull reported in 2024.

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