Suspect mistakenly freed in Lady Gaga’s dog theft recaptured
FILE - This April 27, 2021, photo combination released by the U.S. Marshals Service shows James Howard Jackson. Jackson, a suspect mistakenly released from a Los Angeles County jail where he was being held on suspicion of shooting Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stealing her French bulldogs, has been recaptured, authorities said Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. (U.S. Marshals Service via AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A suspect mistakenly released from a Los Angeles County jail where he was being held on suspicion of shooting Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stealing her French bulldogs has been recaptured, authorities said.
James Howard Jackson, 19, was arrested Wednesday nearly five months after he was released from jail while awaiting trial “due to a clerical error,” the county Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Jackson was one of five people arrested in connection with the Feb. 24, 2021, attack in Hollywood.
Last month, the U.S. Marshals Service announced a reward up to $5,000 for information leading to his arrest.
Jackson’s arrest comes as one of three men charged in the case pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery.
Jaylin Keyshawn White, 20, was immediately sentenced to four years in state prison, Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee told NBC4.
Prosecutors said Jackson and two other alleged gang members had driven around looking for expensive French bulldogs to steal, then spotted, tailed and robbed Ryan Fischer as he walked Lady Gaga’s dogs near the famed Sunset Boulevard. Fischer was with the pop star’s three dogs named Asia, Koji and Gustav.
During a violent struggle, Fischer was hit, choked and then shot in an attack captured by the doorbell camera of a nearby home.
The video captured Fischer screaming, “Oh, my God! I’ve been shot!” and “Help me!” and “I’m bleeding out from my chest!”
Fischer lost part of a lung. About a month after the crime, he posted on Instagram that his recovering has gone well.
The pop star’s dogs were returned two days later by a woman who claimed she had found them tied to a pole and asked about Lady Gaga’s offer of a $500,000 reward if the dogs were returned “no questions asked.” The singer was in Rome at the time filming a movie.
The woman was charged with receiving stolen property and the father of another suspect is charged with helping him avoid arrest.
Jackson already had been charged in the attack and had pleaded not guilty when the county district attorney’s office filed a superseding indictment that charged him with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a robbery and assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
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