Soto hit the dog with a hatchet before stabbing it, the judge said "I can't see how that could ever be reasonable conduct," Ernest said. "It seems to me like the conduct of someone who was under the influence of methamphetamine and just didn't know what he was doing." The judge said the defendant initially told police a drug dealer had killed the dog to send him a message. In court Tuesday, Soto disputed two facts which had been reported about the incident. He said he was not under the influence of methamphetamine at the time, but that a detective had put that in his report. He said his pet was not an English bulldog, but a Johnson bulldog.