Man sentenced to 12 years for killing K-9 with a gun he couldn’t legally own

COLUMBIA — A Newberry County man who killed a police dog has been sentenced to 12 ½ years in federal prison for shooting Coba with a gun he couldn’t legally possess.

James Robert Peterson’s prior convictions prevented him from having guns. But the 38-year-old Prosperity man was carrying a shotgun when law enforcement officers attempted to arrest him at his mother’s home June 11, 2024, on burglary charges. He fatally shot Coba, a K-9 with the State Law Enforcement Division, who was between Peterson and three officers in the doorway, according to prosecutors.

Peterson pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Judge Jacquelyn Austin sentenced him to 150 months in federal prison, the state’s U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

There is no parole in the federal system.

That’s in addition to his 33-year sentence in March on state charges of first-degree burglary, attempted murder, cruelty to a police dog and resisting arrest with a deadly weapon.

David Stumbo, the solicitor who prosecuted the state case in Newberry County, told legislators in April that only five of those 33 years were for killing Coba, one of five police dogs killed in duty last year.

“We didn’t believe that five years was nearly enough time,” Stumbo told senators.

In addition to Stumbo, sheriffs from Greenville and Richland County also testified in support of a bill that would increase the prison time and fines for anyone killing or injuring a police dog or horse in the state.

The existing penalty is up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The proposal authored by Goose Creek Republican Brian Adams would increase penalties to $20,000 and a decade in prison.

The proposal advanced from the Senate Judiciary Committee and remains in play for next year’s session.