SANTA ANA (CNS) – An Irvine dog trainer was convicted Wednesday of killing 11 dogs under his care, and his assistant was convicted of helping him cover it up.
Kwong “Tony” Chun Sit, 54, was convicted of 10 felony counts of animal cruelty and two felony counts of animal abuse as well as misdemeanor counts of attempting to conceal evidence and concealing evidence. He was acquitted of one count of animal cruelty and nine counts of animal abuse.
Co-defendant Tingfeng Liu, 24, was convicted of felony accessory after the fact and misdemeanor counts of attempt to destroy or conceal evidence and destroying or concealing evidence.
The defendants were scheduled to be sentenced July 10.
Liu’s defense attorney, Fred Fascenelli, told City News Service he was “disappointed in the verdict,” because he found it difficult to believe that someone with limited ability to speak English and new to the country could have understood her boss was committing a felony.
“I would think it was misdemeanor conduct at worst,” Fascenelli said.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger will hold a non- jury trial on aggravating factors before sentencing in July. Fascenelli plans to argue to have the felony reduced to a misdemeanor.
Menninger will also decide whether Sit committed a crime while out on bail in an unrelated case out of Riverside County in 2024 in which he is accused of brandishing a gun in a dispute with workers repairing a leaky pipe.
The dogs that died under Sit’s care were Shadow, Ziggy, Miko, Rosie, Theo, Puffin, Cody, Zoe, Luna, Bang Bang and Saint.
Sit owned Happy K9 Academy, where the dogs were housed to be trained, Deputy District Attorney Danica Drotman said in her opening statement of the trial. Liu moved in with Sit in May 2025 and would help with some of the dog training and care, the prosecutor said.
The dogs would stay for a week or two weeks for the training, Drotman said.
One of the dogs died June 12 and the rest died June 18.
After the dogs died, Sit and Liu took the bodies to multiple crematory services, Drotman said. Two were cremated but the rest of the cremations were prevented by authorities, Drotman said.
Sit sent clients a text message saying the canines “died peacefully” in their sleep overnight, Drotman said. He allegedly offered them refunds and said the dogs would be cremated and the clients could pick up the ashes.
The texts triggered the investigation when one of the clients called police, Drotman said.
An officer who investigated the defendant’s home at 733 Estancia found his Mercedes-Benz van was filled with carrying containers of the bodies of the dogs that reeked of bleach, she said.
Necropsies showed that eight of the dogs died from heat stroke and one from blunt-force trauma, Drotman said.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Chay argued the text message to his customers was “lie after lie after lie because we know the truth. We know he was not actually sorry… and it was painful and they suffered… It wasn’t unexpected. If anything, it was preventable.”
A prosecution expert testified that the puppy Rosie was “so afraid she urinated on herself,” Chay argued. The puppy’s cause of death was “blunt force trauma to the head,” Chay said.
Evidence also indicated many of the dogs died of heat stroke as they were crammed into carriers too tight for the dogs and left in a van, the prosecutor said.
“That van was a death bed,” Chay said.
When Irvine police asked Sit where his dog was when the others died, the defendant said the dog was in his air-conditioned apartment with him, according to Chay.
Chay said Liu moved into Sit’s one-bedroom apartment with him and that Sit referred to her as his girlfriend in a text message.
Fascenelli, however, disputed a romantic relationship and said police combed through hundreds of personal videos of Sit’s, but never found any intimate images of the defendants. Liu never changed her address from San Diego, where she went to college, and moved at the beginning of the summer break, the defense attorney said.
Whenever Sit went to pick up a customer’s dog, Liu always remained in the car, Fascenelli said. The two had a 30-year age difference and prosecutors failed to prove they were romantically involved, the defense attorney argued.
Liu simply “followed directions” from her boss when taking the dogs to a large-animal landfill business.
“There’s no proof she knew a crime had been committed,” Fascenelli said.
“I don’t see a nefarious aspect of cleaning up after a number of animals had passed away,” Fascenelli said.
Liu had also asked Sit if he really wanted to leave the bodies at the landfill, Fascenelli said.
Sit’s attorney Kate Corrigan said prosecutors did not prove how the dogs died.
In her opening statement of the trial, Corrigan said Sit had been a dog trainer for a long time and enjoyed a strong reputation.
Corrigan referred to “panic attacks” in the wake of the deaths of the dogs.
“I believe the evidence will show you one bad decision after another happened,” Corrigan said. “Whether that rises to the level of a criminal conviction will be left up to you.”
Corrigan said “things happened very quickly … and they were not the fault of Mr. Sit.”
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