March 20, 2018
Laurel Hill, FL – A Laurel Hill man being held in the Walton County jail is facing charges in Okaloosa County ranging from aggravated battery to felony animal cruelty in the gruesome mutilation death of his father’s dog.
Michael Landes Reeves
22-year old Michael Reeves was wanted in Okaloosa County in connection with a domestic battery on his father March 7th. 57-year old Christopher Reeves says Michael was throwing items in his bedroom and he went in to calm him but Michael cut him with a kitchen knife on his left arm. When deputies arrived Michael Reeves went in and locked the door, then jumped out of a rear window and ran into the woods.
On March 14th Reeves was located at a home on Anice Lane in Laurel Hill and served with an unrelated warrant out of Walton County. He was found in possession of a fourteen inch fixed blade knife covered in blood. He also had felony narcotics and paraphernalia. Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputies went to Reeves home on North County Road 393 where his father said Michael Reeves had been spending the past week alone. They found every window and door had been barricaded.
A small black and white beagle mix puppy was found in a laundry room. Reeves’ father said the puppy was not his. Deputies then found a large pool of blood inside a hallway with a trail to a bedroom. The father’s dog, a 75 pound Pitbull mix, was found mutilated in a bedroom. A blood trail led to the refrigerator where canine body parts were found inside. Several tools, including knives, saws, and a hammer believed used in the crime were also found at the scene.
Reeves now has active warrants in Okaloosa County for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, causing the cruel death with pain and suffering of an animal, resisting an officer without violence, and felony violation of probation.
The puppy was removed from the home by the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society.