Recordpub.com - New charges for man who burned dogs Police say he crashed stolen truck in Portage

By Colin McEwen

Record-Courier staff writer

A Munroe Falls man who was sent to prison in 2007 for stealing a van from the parking lot of a Cuyahoga Falls hotel and setting it on fire, killing the two showdogs inside, is now suspected of stealing another vehicle, which was wrecked in Portage County.

Santos Labajetta, 34, crashed a pickup truck in Brimfield on Saturday that he allegedly stole that morning while it was parked at a convenience store on State Road in Cuyahoga Falls. Police had put out a warrant for his arrest that same day.

Troopers from the Ravenna Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol responded to the crash Saturday on I-76 near the S.R. 43 exit around 12:45 p.m.

As Labajetta was westbound on I-76 in the stolen truck, he lost control of the vehicle, and drove off the highway, before the truck overturned and came to rest in an embankment, said Trooper William Hoberg of the patrol.

He was not wearing his seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle. Before investigators realized the vehicle was stolen, Labajetta already had been transported by the Brimfield Fire Department to Akron City Hospital with unknown injuries, Hoberg said.

He said once Labajetta is released from the hospital, he may face charges — including auto theft.

“We’ve talked with the (Cuyahoga Falls Police Department) and we will present our paperwork to the prosecutor’s office,” he said.

The official crash report was not available because it is still under investigation.

Hoberg said beer cans were found near the crash site, and “alcohol is suspected” as a factor in the crash.

This is not Labajetta’s first run-in involving car theft.

He was sentenced to 18 months in jail in 2007 for grand theft and arson after he stole a van in Cuyahoga Falls — then set it ablaze, killing the two champion Vizsla showdogs inside.

On Jan. 7, 2007, a Connecticut dog breeder attending a Tallmadge dog show left her van unlocked and running in the parking lot of the Sheraton Suites Hotel in Cuyahoga Falls with her two purebred dogs inside. When she returned, the van was missing.

Munroe Falls police recovered the van abandoned in a field near the intersection of Gaylord Drive and Carolyn Road, less than two hours after the van was reported stolen. The dogs were dead, police said. Cuyahoga Falls police described the van as being in a “burned condition.”

Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Elinore Stormer sentenced Labajetta to 18 months in jail April 25, 2007. However, according to court records, he was released from the Marion Correctional Institution six months later.

During the sentencing, Stormer noted that during the 2007 incident, Labajetta “was so drunk he did not realize there were dogs in the car. That’s what the evidence says. These crimes took place because the defendant made the initial decision to get drunk.”