OCEANSIDE — A San Diego Superior Court Judge granted a continuance for the sentencing of a 28-year-old man who jumped off the Coronado Bridge with Oceanside police canine Stryker attached to his arm, which led to the dog’s death.
Judge Joel Pressman continued Cory Nathaniel Byron’s sentencing to Jan. 7 so that a psychiatric evaluation could be performed.
Less than a week before Byron was to go to trial in September, the Oceanside man accepted a plea agreement, which included pleading guilty to a single felony count each of evading police and causing injury while driving drunk, as well as no contest to the harmful interference of a police animal stemming from an incident this past New Year’s Eve.
Byron took authorities on a 35-minute police chase from Oceanside to San Diego, where he eventually jumped from a 200-foot section of the Coronado Bridge on Jan. 31, 2007, with Stryker attached to his arm. He had a blood alcohol level of .17 when his blood was drawn four hours after the incident. He suffered a collapsed lung and spent a week in the hospital.
In accordance to the plea, a hit-and-run and DUI charge were dropped, prosecutors said. The dismissal of the charges doesn’t affect Byron’s potential sentence of up to three years and eight months in prison and fines of up to $20,000. He remains in custody in lieu of $1,015,000 bail.
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