Ohio woman accused of beating baby dear to death with shovel gets community service, $500 fine

Community service for woman in fawn beating death

EUCLID, Ohio — An Ohio woman accused of beating a baby deer to death with a shovel after finding it in her flower garden has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service.

Seventy-six-year-old Dorothy Richardson of the Cleveland suburb of Euclid pleaded no contest Thursday to one misdemeanor count of animal abuse and was found guilty by a municipal court judge, who also ordered Richardson to pay a $500 fine.

Richardson says she became frightened when she saw the fawn in her garden on June 15 and had meant to shoo it away with the shovel.

Earlier, she pleaded not guilty to two animal abuse counts. One charge was dropped in exchange for her new, no contest plea.