FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Quinten Putnam, the animal lover whose former neighbor accosted him for feeding Muscovy ducks, was found guilty Thursday of battering that neighbor.
Putnam said the neighbor, David Lawn, who was then 69 years old, approached him on the street in their Davie neighborhood and began screaming at him for feeding a mother duck and her ducklings before the fight.
Lawn, who like many considered the ducks pests, particularly for their penchant of defecating on his driveway, admitted that he confronted Putnam.
"I said, 'I love all animals,' which is his mantra," Lawn said.
After making the sarcastic remark, Lawn said Putnam, without warning, "bum-rushed" him like a linebacker, tackling him to the ground.
But Putnam said it was the instigator, Lawn, who put his hands on him and attacked him, forcing him to defend himself and causing both to fall to the ground.
Both of the prosecution's own witnesses contradicted Lawn's account, saying that while they didn't see how the fight actually began, they saw no flying tackle.
Both Edward and Sandra Eppler, a married couple, said they saw the two men struggling together, with Putnam striking Lawn, before the two men fell to the street together.
"There's always going to be contradictions in a self-defense case where the defendant takes the stand," assistant state attorney Andy Newman said. "We did have two independent witnesses and a victim. ... It's not our job to actually say who's telling the truth or who isn't. Our job is to present the evidence."
Newman stressed in his closing argument that Putnam admitted to striking Lawn 10 to 12 times and kicking him as he was breaking away from him on the ground.
Putnam, 57, who has a pristine record and has never been in trouble with the law before, testified that he was in a fighting situation and that he needed to strike Lawn to get him to let go of him.
Putnam, who said the case has ruined his life and caused him to go homeless at times, faces up to five years in prison when sentenced.
Assistant public defender Alexia Hudson said she is hoping Broward Circuit Judge Raag Singhal will spare him time behind bars.
"We are disappointed in what happened," she said. "We just hope the judge would at sentencing do something that is not jail."