'Booshu's' Killer Gets Jail Time In Brutal Beating Of Little Dog

TOMS RIVER, NJ - A Staten Island man who brutally beat his girlfriend's 15-pound dog "Booshu" to death last summer will spend the next 300 days in the Ocean County Jail.

Ocean County Superior Court Judge James M. Blaney also sentenced Nicholas Piccolino, 34, to three years probation, and forbid him from owning any animals during that. He must also complete an anger management course, undergo a substance abuse evaluation and comply with any recommendations, according to a report in app.com.

Booshu's owner, Meghan Nadeau, had hoped for more.

"He got what he deserved, and he should have gotten more than what he did,'' Nadeau told app.com after the sentencing.

She had left Booshu - a 10-year-old Bichon Frise - alone with her former boyfriend in her Seaside Heights home on Aug. 19.

When Nadeau came home and found her dog lifeless, Piccolino told her "Booshu'' had a seizure and that he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the animal, Nadeau said.

Piccolino gave a number of different stories about what happened to the little dog.

First, he said she simply stopped breathing, Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Heidi Tannenbaum-Newman said. Then he said he accidentally dropped her while cleaning her, she said. He later said he dropped "Booshu'' when she bit him, and then said he threw her to the ground after he was bitten.

But Booshu had horrific injuries that didn't match with any of Piccolino's versions of what happened. She had multiple rib fractures on both sides of her body, multiple bruises, and broken and missing teeth, according to necropsy results, Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office has set.

Booshu was was pronounced dead on arrival at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in Tinton Falls.

Image: Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.