Woman charged after dog found dead in dumpster takes plea deal

    TUCSON, Arizona (KVOA) -- The Tucson woman charged with several misdemeanor animal cruelty charges after her dog was found dead inside a dumpster at her apartment complex has taken a plea agreement.

Semya Jones was facing 90 days in jail and a $2,500 fine but avoided a trial by accepting a plea offer from prosecutors in Tucson City Court.

On Thursday, she accepted the prosecutions plea offer and was sentenced to 36 months of unsupervised probation.

“You are pleading guilty to one count of animal cruelty and neglect. We are dismissing two similar charges. You are going to be on a total of 36 months unsupervised probation, there will be no probation fees and no probation officer. The conditions of probation are you don’t violate the law and don’t own any animals," said Judge Cranshaw.

Jones appeared in court virtually and Judge Cranshaw ordered that we were not allowed to film her, which is different from previous hearings where we were freely allowed to film her.

During the hearing, a group of animal advocates filled the courtroom to "demand justice" for Jones' dog Chloe.

Some chose to express their views loudly to the judge without his permission, one woman described Jones as an animal murderer as she walked out of the room.

The judge didn't acknowledge those statements until another woman soon after said "she belongs in jail" and then Judge Cranshaw took a moment to scold the behavior.

“Excuse me, you all can have your opinions about this case and you do and that’s fine; however, I need to maintain order in this court room," he said.

The outbursts then stopped.

Chloe was found dead in the dumpster at Jones' apartment complex in July 2023. Her body was found by Blanca Buchanan who has been spearheading the calls for justice ever since.

Buchanan didn't find the body on accident, she had been preserving videos captured on her daughter's doorbell surveillance camera over the course of several days showing concerning interactions between Jones and Chloe.

In some of the videos you could hear Chloe make a sound as if she were in pain and scurry out the door as if she had been kicked. Buchanan turned the video over to police and the Pima Animal Care Center, which had started an investigation.

Before that investigation could be completed, Buchanan saw a video of Jones walking out of her apartment in a hoodie with Chloe nowhere to be seen.

She felt something was wrong so walked to the dumpster and found Chloe's dead and bloodied body stuffed inside of a trash bag matching the one seen in Jones' hands on video.

After she reported the situation to police, PACC brought several animal cruelty charges against Jones.

Buchanan feels the sentence is very disappointing.

“I feel like the system failed Chloe," she said. “Disappointed, I wanted to cry.”

Throughout the nearly two years the case has been going on, Jones has never offered an explanation.

News 4 Tucson's Chief Investigative Reporter Chorus Nylander confronted her outside of a previous court hearing. Jones tried hiding her face with a binder and had nothing to say.

Buchanan feels that even though the sentence was light, there's justice in her being charged at all.

“To me I have to think of it as justice that she got caught," she said.

As long as Jones follows through with her probation that will be it for her, the jailtime and fines associated with the charges were all waived.