Ex-Boyfriend Accused Of Shooting Puppy In Face With Shotgun

By Mike Perleberg Jacob D. Hooten. Photo by Franklin County Sheriff's Department. (Franklin County, Ind.) – When police came to help a motorist who had slid off the road in Rush County on Thursday, December 28, they made a shocking discovery in the backseat. It was a puppy that had been shot in the face. The driver, Makayla Cate, told officers that she was taking her black lab, named Harley, to get help when she wrecked, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Franklin County court on Friday, December 29. She explained to deputies she had earlier been arguing via text message with her ex-boyfriend, Jacob David Hooten, who was keeping the six-month-old puppy at his home in Laurel. She drove from New Castle, Indiana to Hooten’s home on Quarry Road. She waited for relatives of Hooten to arrive before going onto the property to retrieve the dog. "I was scared he was going to hurt me or my family," shared Cate. Once at the home around midnight, she found Harely laying on the back porch with a gunshot wound, but still alive. She took the puppy to get help. It appeared the dog had the right side of its jaw mutilated, apparently by a shotgun blast, the deputies said. Cate decided to have Harley euthanized because there was no assurance he would survive. The puppy was put down about 10 hours after being shot. "There wasn't much we could do for her," she said. Harley died after being shot in the face with a shotgun, says Makayla Cate. Photo provided. Deputies went to Hooten’s home. As they approached the residence, they noticed two pools of blood in the snow next to the back porch. Hooten spoke with deputies and allegedly admitted that he had texted Cate about threatening to shoot her dog. According to a court affidavit, he stated he did shoot the dog with a 16 gauge shotgun in the area where the blood was observed near the porch. He was then placed under arrest. Hooten is charged with Torturing or Mutilating a Vertebrate Animal (level 6 felony). He is held in jail at the Franklin County Security Center on a $5,000 bond. Makayla has obtained a restraining order against Hooten. "And I'll be filing for a gun permit to protect myself that way," she said.