The 16-year-old girl came home to find flowers, her dog’s collar and a note next to her front door.
Also there, under a towel and inside a trash bag with its head and front legs sticking out was the body of Jordan, the girl’s 1-year-old Shih Tzu mix. An electrical cord was wound around its neck.
Her boyfriend, suspicious that she was with another guy, had been calling and texting her in a jealous rage, threatening to kill the pup he bought her a year ago if she wasn’t home by 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Lawrence Graham, 19, made good on his promise, detectives said, and now faces six felony counts of animal cruelty. He was arrested Wednesday night.
“Thank God she didn’t come home, because who knows what he would have done to her,” Detective Sira Arroyo said. “She’s traumatized by the situation. It was a dog that she had for a whole year and cared for and loved.”
The North Lauderdale man told investigators he was mad when he went to his girlfriend’s Pompano Beach home and she wasn’t there, so he kicked the dog, slammed it on the ground and put it in a plastic trash bag, according to an arrest report.
When the tiny curly-headed dog scratched a hole in the bag, Graham choked it. Jordan died while Graham waited for his girlfriend to come home, the report said.
Graham wrote a note and left it for his girlfriend next to the dead dog, the collar and flowers. It said, “Coulda Made It RIP Jordan,” the sheriff’s office said.
Graham, who works at Coconut Creek High School, next shot off a few guilt-laden text messages to his girlfriend, his arrest report said..
“okwen u get home he dead”
“if u really loved him u woulda made it in time 2 save him”
“hope it was worth it”
When Graham went before a Broward County judge at his first-appearance hearing Thursday morning, his mother was there.
Through tears, she told the judge she “did not raise that type of son.”
Graham is being held in the Broward Main Jail. His bond was set at $2,500 per count for a total of $15,000.
tealanez@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4542 or Twitter @talanez