Police dog’s partner recounts fatal call

Vancouver police dog Dakota, four months before his death. (Files/The Columbian)

Ronald J. Chenette Faces life in prison if convicted

Vancouver Police Officer Roger Evans testified Thursday that he sent police dog Dakota into the woods to find Ronald J. Chenette last year because Dakota “was the best search tool we had.”

Chenette, 39, had been described to officers as a mentally ill man who was armed and threatening to kill police. He’s on trial in Clark County Superior Court for killing Dakota, and if convicted of harming a police dog with a firearm, it will be his “third strike” and he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.

Attorneys will give closing arguments this morning.

Recalling the Oct. 23, 2007, incident for jurors, Evans said the dense woods, behind Bethel Cemetery in Brush Prairie, had steep slopes and was going to be difficult to navigate.

Dakota, however, took off down a ravine and was quickly out of sight. Evans could tell Dakota had picked up Chenette’s scent, or, in K-9 talk, was “in the odor.”

It wasn’t long before Evans heard a gunshot.

Evans said he and Dakota, a 5-year-old German shepherd, went through 400 hours of training to be a certified K-9 team.

Dakota had lived with Evans and his family, and it was apparent Thursday that Dakota’s death still stung.

Evans appeared fine on the witness stand until Deputy Prosecutor Scott Jackson handed him exhibit No. 22 to identify before it could be shown to the jury.

Evans paused a few seconds before he was able to answer.

“That’s a photograph of Dakota,” Evans said, as he put the picture facedown.

After Dakota was shot, Chenette came out of the woods and was chased and taken down by Akbar, a dog handled by Deputy Alan Earhart of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. Earhart said Akbar bit Chenette’s right arm but that Chenette also had a mark on his side where a dog failed to get a good grip because of Chenette’s leather jacket.

Chenette also had a bite mark on the upper back part of his left leg.

That one, Evans said, must have been from Dakota.

Court-appointed defense attorney Jeff Barrar has tried making the case that Chenette didn’t realize Dakota was a police dog and he shot the dog in self-defense.

He called two forensic psychologists to tell jurors the extent of Chenette’s mental problems.

Jurors learned it took two court-ordered 90-day stays at Western State Hospital, where Chenette was forced to take antipsychotic medication, in order for him to be competent to stand trial.

Chenette was diagnosed in 2000 with paranoid schizophrenia, said Western State psychologist Marilyn Ronnei.

She said when she interviewed Chenette in the Clark County Jail five weeks after his arrest last year, he said he had been hearing voices and thought people could read his mind. He was convinced he was being poisoned in the jail.

Chenette’s prior strikes are for second-degree murder and second-degree assault.

Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4549 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.