New trial ordered for B.C. man convicted in killing of ex-girlfriend’s chihuahua

The BC Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial for a B.C. man convicted in the killing of his ex-girlfriend’s tiny chihuahua.

Randeep Ghataura, 45, was convicted in October 2024 of willfully killing, wounding or injuring an animal, and sentenced in February 2025 to four months in jail, three years probation , and a 20-year ban on owning or possessing any animals.

Ghataura, who was released on bail shortly after his sentencing, appealed the conviction , arguing the trial judge failed to properly consider the mental element of the offence and misapprehended the expert evidence.

At trial, the judge found that Ghataura admitted to striking the dog and that the dog was injured as a result.

In a unanimous decision posted Friday, the B.C. Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, stating that the trial judge’s reasons are largely silent on the issue of the mens rea, which required proof the appellant (Ghataura) intended to injure the dog or knew it was probable that the blow would cause injury and was reckless as to that result.

“The record does not demonstrate how the trial judge came to the conclusion that the appellant acted “willfully”,” stated Justice Peter H. Edelmann in the judgment. “In this case, consideration of the mens rea of the offences was critical because of the nature of the expert evidence and the available inferences that could be drawn…I am unable to discern, from the reasons or the record, what inferences the trial judge drew from that evidence.”

While Ghataura was seeking an acquittal from the appeal court, Edelmann remitted the matter for a new trial, with Justices David C. Harris and Janet Winteringham in agreement.

“To say this is disappointing is an understatement,” Jeannine Chiasson told Global News in an interview.

Following her break-up with Ghataura, Chiasson came home from work on March 25, 2020 to find her dog Tacori, who weighed less than nine pounds, in significant physical trauma.

According to appellate documents filed by the Crown, Ghataura entered his ex-girlfriend’s apartment earlier that day and repeatedly struck her small Chihuahua on the head with a shoe.

Chiasson rushed Tacori to a veterinarian, but the dog had suffered serious injuries and had to be euthanized.

Two years later, in March 2022, Chiasson recorded a phone conversation with Ghataura in which she asked him what he had done to her dog.

He replied that he had hit the dog on the head a “couple of times when I didn’t like the way he behaved…maybe with a shoe”.

Court heard Ghataura was arrested shortly afterwards and made a spontaneous statement to the arresting officer that the dog was misbehaving and that he had hurt it badly.