Dog attack victim tells jury: 'God covered me'

Victim's neighbors on trial for attack by pit bull mix

SAN ANTONIO – A 72-year-old woman who was attacked by her neighbors' 70-pound pit bull mix told a jury Friday how she survived the ordeal.

"I was fighting for my life," Doris Mixon-Smith told the jurors.

Mixon-Smith told the jury how the dog mauled her on the morning of March 6 as she worked in her front yard flower garden. The dog had escaped from his owners' backyard.

"I looked up and he looked like an albino dog. .. mouth was wide open and I said, I started hollering, 'Please help me. Oh God, please help me," Smith told the jurors. "He came at me with his mouth wide open."

"Did his mouth make contact with your left arm?" prosecutor Daryl Harris asked Mixon-Smith.

"Do you see it here, Mr. Harris?" Mixon-Smith answered, as she gestured toward her upper left arm, which was torn from her body just below the shoulder in the attack.

Mixon-Smith told how a young neighbor managed to free her as she tried to get into her house. 

A police officer arrived minutes later and shot the dog to death.

"God covered me, God covered me, and I passed out," Mixon-Smith said.

The dog's owners, Alphonso McCloud and his wife, Stanyelle Miles-McCloud, are facing dangerous dog attack serious bodily injury charges.

If they're found guilty, the couple face a punishment ranging from probation to a maximum of 10 years in prison.

The trial resumes Monday in Judge Joey Contreras' 187th District Court.


About the Author:

Paul Venema is a courthouse reporter for KSAT with more than 25 years experience in the role.