(Beth Clifton collage)
No charges so far in May 27, 2025 New York City fatality. San Antonio case brings both criminal & civil filings
NEW YORK CITY; SAN ANTONIO, Texas––Pit bulls, poor adult judgement, and poverty were the common elements linking the 6:30 a.m. May 27, 2025 mauling of month-old Kianna Winfield of Queens, as she lay in bed between her parents, and the October 7, 2024 death of one-year-old Jiryiah Johnson in San Antonio, Texas, as his 13-year-old emergency babysitter frantically fought three pit bulls to try to save him.
ANIMALS 24-7 extensively reported about the Jiryiah Johnson case when it happened. The case is now back in the news as result of a million-dollar-plus lawsuit filed on May 13, 2025.
See Texas 13-year-old fought three pit bulls in losing battle to save baby boy, and much more below.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Pit bulls banned in NYC public housing
The New York Daily News put six reporters on the May 27, 2025 fatality, occurring at the Queensbridge Houses North, a project building owned by the New York City Housing Authority.
The New York City Housing Authority has banned pit bulls, Rottweilers, and Doberman pinschers from inception in 1937, gradually loosening a prohibition on keeping any pets to allow most other dogs.
Why the reportedly six-week-old pit bull puppy who mauled Kianna Winfield was in the Queensbridge Houses to begin with was among the many questions raised by residents of nearby apartments to New York Daily News reporters Joe Marino, Kevin Sheehan, and Amanda Woods.
“The family’s puppy chewed off part of [the baby’s] face, cops and sources said,” wrote Marino, Sheehan, and Woods in their joint coverage.
“The baby’s mother,” Lillian Burton, 27, “called 911 just after 6:30 a.m.
“The dog bit off a ‘substantial portion’ of the face of the baby — who had just been born April 13, sources said.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“She said, ‘No, this dog don’t bite.’”
Neighbor Shanel Norville told the New York Daily News team, ”I saw that baby two days ago. Mother was standing right here holding the baby waiting for the elevator.
“Then she went back, forgot something, and the dog, who wasn’t on the leash, is never on a leash, was never on a leash, walked onto the elevator by himself and went down and got off on some floor.
”I told her,” Norville recounted, “’That dog needs to be on a leash.’ She said, ‘No, this dog don’t bite.’ I said, ’All dogs bite. That dog needs to be on a leash.’ And she just looked at me like ‘Whatever.’”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“It would be better if she gave me the baby”
New York Daily News reporters Colin Mixson, Rocco Parascandola, and Thomas Tracy meanwhile dug into the background.
“The infant’s mother was adopted at age two, one of nine children raised by the adoptive mother. The infant is survived by an older brother,” Mixxon, Parascandola, and Tracy wrote.
The adoptive mother of the mother of the victim “told the Daily News that she had offered to take the newborn in while the mom, who was living in a shelter at the time, was trying to secure better housing,” Mixxon, Parascandola, and Tracy said.
“It would be better if she gave me the baby,” the mother’s adoptive mom continued to Mixxon, Parascandola, and Tracy. “This wouldn’t have happened.
“I learned that she was pregnant maybe a couple days before she gave birth,” the adoptive mother of the mother of the victim said. “After she gave birth, she loved the baby. I asked her if she had any problems and if she wanted to give me the baby. She said no, she’d take care of her. She would manage.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Two dogs in small apartment”
Wrote Mixxon, Parascandola, and Tracy, “The adoptive mom had not yet gotten to meet her new granddaughter when she learned of her death.
“How could they have a dog with a baby?” she asked. “The dog shouldn’t be in the house.”
Actually there were two dogs in the small apartment, Mixxon, Parascandola, and Tracy indicated. Both are believed to have been impounded by the Animal Care Centers of NYC.
Somewhat complicating the situation, Mixxon of the New York Daily News updated late on May 28, 2025 that “An initial autopsy performed by the New York City medical examiner was inconclusive with further testing needed to determine how the baby died,” according to a spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office.
“But the autopsy did reveal the dog bites were inflicted after the girl was already dead,” Mixxon mentioned, while reiterating that both Burton and her boyfriend told the police they had seen the young pit bull biting the baby’s face.
Father Julian Johnson, victim Jiryiah Johnson, and mother Erika Monique Castro.
(Facebook photo)
Jiryiah Johnson parents sue Blackstone
Meanwhile in San Antonio, reported Jordan Elder for WOAI News 4, “Heather Rodriguez,” whose three pit bulls killed Jiryiah Johnson, “is now facing charges for her role in his death. She is expected to go to trial in July 2025.
“Attorney Steve Dummitt filed the [million-dollar-plus] lawsuit on behalf of Erika Castro and Julian Johnson,” parents of Jiryiah Johnson, Elder said.
“Rodriguez is named,” though the fatality occurred in part because she had next to nothing, “along with Blackstone Inc., a significant player in the single-family rental housing market” nationally.
“The lawsuit,” Elder summarized, that Blackstone “knew or should have known of the dangerous dogs residing on their property, who had eaten through the doors and who posed a danger to the minor children living in the house.”
Steve Dummitt. (Carlson Law Firm photo)
“New information”
Continued Elder, “The lawsuit also reveals new information about the events leading up to Jiryiah’s death,” or at least adds detail to the circumstances that ANIMALS 24-7 already described.
“Heather Rodriguez got called into work with her employer, PepsiCo,” Elder recounted, ‘and asked her thirteen-year-old daughter not to go to school and to take care of Jiryiah all by herself,’ the filing says, adding that Jiryiah’s parents were not informed of this.”
Said attorney Dummitt in a prepared media statement, “San Antonio has recently experienced an epidemic of fatal dog attacks and my clients hope that this lawsuit can not only bring awareness to the public but prevent the next attack from happening. Hopefully, the city, the district attorney, and other enforcement authorities can take special attention to this issue and hold negligent dog owners and landlords accountable.”
Castro, a restaurant server despite being both a dental school graduate and educationally qualified to be a nurse’s aide, asked Rodriguez to look after Jiryiah while she was working; Rodriguez, until she was called in by Pepsico, was not expecting to work that day.
Jiryiah Johnson.
(Facebook photo)
$7.25 Texas minimum wage was a factor
As ANIMALS 24-7 pointed out at the time, the scenario might not have unfolded as it did if the Texas minimum wage was not $7.25 an hour, less for workers who receive tips, and if adequate child care options were available to low-wage working mothers.
But as ANIMALS 24-7 also pointed out at the time, people in minimum wage jobs, especially those with minor children at home, cannot afford to keep pit bulls, let alone keep three of them in a high-liability situation.
Thirteen-year-old emergency babysitter Hailee Wylie “made every effort possible” on behalf of Jiryiah Johnson, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told Katrina Webber of KSAT television news in San Antonio, “even lifting that baby over her head,” after the three pit bulls crashed through the already damaged bedroom door, “that they had already damaged, to get to the baby.
Hailee Wylie tried to save Jiryiah Johnson from fatal pit bull attack.
(Facebook photo)
Three pit bulls against 13-year-old
“One dog pulled the baby from the bed,” recounted Beltran, “and another dog joined in the attack. There was a ‘tug-of-war’ between the girl and one of the dogs for the baby, Salazar said.
“The girl spent about two minutes trying to fight the dogs off. She was able to escape with the baby into a bathroom, but the dogs forced their way into the bathroom as well, continuing to attack them.
“That’s when one of the dogs bit the girl.”
Continued Salazar, “At a certain point, she had to break away, and physically left the baby behind in the bathroom, and went to get her cell phone to call for help.”
Picked up San Antonio Express-News staff writer Jacob Beltran, “The girl grabbed her cell phone, returned to the bathroom, and resumed fighting with the dogs. She then escaped with the baby into another bedroom, barricading the door until deputies arrived.”
Pit bull owner Heather Rodriguez.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Rodriguez charged but Blackstone is the “deep pockets”
Rodriguez was charged with causing injury to a child resulting in serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony, which in Texas carries the same potential penalties as murder.
While the Castro/Johnson lawsuit names Rodriguez as well as Blackstone as defendants, the landlord firm Blackstone has the “deep pockets” from whom a payout or settlement might be won.
But the legal history of lawsuits seeking to hold landlords financially responsible for the consequences of dog attacks is inconsistent and mostly negative.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Precedents
Four cases within the present century have set precedents against landlord culpability:
- 2003 Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Smaxwell v. Thompson
- 2019 Georgia Court of Appeals, Tyner v. Matta-Troncoso
- 2021 Vermont Supreme Court, Higgins v. Bailey
- 2021 South Dakota Supreme Court, Burgi v. East Winds Court, Inc.
A fifth appellate case held that a landlord could be held partially responsible for damages resulting from a dog attack, but only if the landlord had specific knowledge that the dog in question was vicious:
- 2015 California Court of Appeal, Yuzon v. Collins
Only two appellate-level cases have held landlords responsible for dog attack damages:
- 2009 Massachusetts Appeals Court, Nutt vs. Florio
- 2012 Kentucky Supreme Court, Benningfield v. Zinsmeister.
Beth & Merritt Clifton with friends.
The Benningfield v. Zinsmeister precedent, however, was reversed in 2017 by an act of the Kentucky legislature.
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The post Pit bulls, poor adult judgement, & poverty: common aspects of 2 infant deaths appeared first on Animals 24-7.