HUDSON — The Jack Russell terrier had been barking Monday night while David Crivelli and his girlfriend argued. After Crivelli punched his girlfriend several times, authorities said, he turned to their dog.
He grabbed a full, sealed bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne and "struck the dog multiple times in the head," the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said. The dog died from those injuries.
Crivelli, 49, shoved the terrier's body in a red pillowcase and buried it in a shallow grave in the front yard of the couple's home at 7632 Hatteras Drive in the Sea Pines area of Hudson. Pasco deputies arrived and the girlfriend, 30-year-old Amanda Gardner, showed them the champagne bottle and where the dog was buried. Gardner's left eye was purple and nearly swollen shut, the sheriff's report states. Her lip was cut.
She told deputies the fight began because Crivelli didn't like her working as a dancer at Lollipops, a strip club in Hudson.
"She said David was mad about her working there and was saying she was prostituting herself at the club," the report says.
Crivelli, who is unemployed, punched Gardner "multiple times in the face with a closed fist" and pushed her down, deputies said. Gardner said she also punched him in self-defense. They continued arguing, she said, and Crivelli turned toward the barking dog.
Crivelli wouldn't talk to deputies about what happened, but he did keep asking why he was being arrested, the report states.
Gardner was not able to be reached by phone Tuesday and no one answered at her home, which had a "wipe your paws" welcome mat on the porch. The front windows were slightly open and one glass panel was broken. Rain poured inside the open windows of a car in the driveway. A shovel was in the front yard.
Crivelli was charged with domestic battery and cruelty to animals. He has no prior arrests in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Crivelli is being held without bail at the Pasco jail.
Times researcher Natalie Watson contributed to this story. Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@tampabay.com or (727) 869-6229.