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Final defendant pleads in Lady Gaga’s dog walker shooting
The Industry Dec 22, 2022
Lady Gaga's French bulldogs. | Photo courtesy of Lady Gaga/Twitter
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The final defendant charged in connection with the shooting of Lady Gaga’s dog walker during the theft of two of the singer’s French bulldogs last year pleaded no contest Wednesday and was placed on two years probation.
Jennifer McBride — who according to police reported that she found the dogs and responded to the singer’s reward offer for their return — was originally charged with one count each of being an accessory after the fact and receiving stolen property.
She pleaded no contest Wednesday to the charge of receiving stolen property with a value of $950 or more and was immediately sentenced to two years probation.
Authorities said the 52-year-old woman, who brought the dogs to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Olympic Division, allegedly had a relationship with co-defendant Harold White, the 42-year-old father of another co-defendant who took part in the actual theft, Jaylin White.
Harold White pleaded no contest earlier this month to possession of a firearm with a prior conviction. He is set to be sentenced next year, according to prosecutors.
Also earlier this month, James Howard Jackson, 20, pleaded no contest to a single count of attempted murder with great bodily injury, and he admitted a prior strike, in connection with the Feb. 24, 2021, attack on Lady Gaga’s longtime dog walker, Ryan Fischer.
In exchange for Jackson’s plea to the attempted murder count, prosecutors dismissed charges of second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and being a felon carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle.
Jackson’s case was delayed after he was mistakenly released from custody April 6 due to a clerical error. He was rearrested in early August.
Fischer was walking three French bulldogs belonging to Lady Gaga when he was shot, and two of the dogs were stolen in the 1500 block of North Sierra Bonita Avenue, near Sunset Boulevard.
Surveillance video from a home security system shows Fischer walking on the sidewalk when a white sedan pulls up and stops in the street, with two people jumping from the back seat and saying, “Give it up.”
A struggle ensued and one gunshot was fired, prompting Fischer to fall to the ground, screaming. The assailants each grabbed one dog — named Koji and Gustav — and got back into the rear seat of the car, leaving Fischer on the ground yelling for help.
The singer’s other bulldog, Miss Asia, ran back to Fischer on the ground after the assailants’ vehicle disappeared from view.
Earlier this year, Lafayette Shon Whaley, 28, pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery for the theft and was sentenced to six years in state prison. He admitted a prior strike for a 2016 criminal threats case. Two other charges against him, including attempted murder, were dismissed as a result of his plea.
Whaley’s plea came eight days after Jaylin Keyshawn White, 20, pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery and admitted that another defendant was armed during the attack. White was sentenced Aug. 3 to four years in state prison.
Lady Gaga, who was in Italy filming a movie at the time of the shooting, had offered a $500,000 reward for her pets’ safe return and praised Fischer, saying he risked his life “to fight for our family. You’re forever a hero.”
In a Instagram post about a month after the crime, Fischer said he had been recovering well from the shooting when his lung collapsed and he had to have emergency surgery.
Los Angeles police said detectives did not believe the victim was targeted because Lady Gaga is the dogs’ owner, but suspect that the great value of the breed was known and was the motivation for the robbery.
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