A Hawthorne man accused of killing his girlfriend's grandmother's 3-year-old Maltese pooch after an argument was arrested, police said Tuesday.
Seth Estrada, 22, was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty Friday after the Maltese dog named Rain was found dead with skull fractures and other injuries, according to Hawthorne police.
Officers went to the home in the 4200 block of 136th Street to respond to a disturbance.
Rain was found dead, police said.
The pup's owner, who is the grandmother of Estrada's girlfriend, said they had gotten into an argument earlier in the day about him living in her house.
The woman said she believed Estrada intentionally hurt the dog after the fight.
When Estrada relayed his account of how the dog was injured to police, it differed from what he had told Rain's owner.
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Estrada was arrested and booked into the Hawthorne Police Department Jail.
Rain suffered multiple skull fractures, broken ribs, a crushed spleen and internal bleeding, a necropsy revealed.
Estrada was still in custody when the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office filed an animal cruelty charge against him Tuesday.
