No charges filed in K9’s death, DA cites systemic failures at Department of Corrections

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced no criminal charges will be filed in the 2023 death of K9 Loki, citing systemic failures within the Utah Department of Corrections.

The police service dog died of heatstroke on July 13, 2023, after being left in a vehicle equipped with a heat alert system that was turned off. Gill called Loki’s death a “profoundly unfortunate accident” but said it did not meet the legal threshold for criminal negligence.

According to the investigation, temperatures that day reached as high as 97 degrees. Officer Jacob Lee Naccarato, Loki’s handler, had left the dog inside the vehicle after completing a warehouse search. Believing Loki was in his indoor kennel, Naccarato returned hours later to discover the dog still in the vehicle.

A necropsy determined the likely cause of Loki’s death was heatstroke.

Why no charges?

Gill explained that the decision not to pursue charges stemmed from the legal definitions of recklessness and negligence.

He noted that Officer Jacob Lee Naccarato, Loki’s handler, parked the vehicle in an area near the kennels, where Loki would typically be placed after duty. Investigators believe Naccarato mistakenly thought Loki was already inside the kennel when he left the vehicle.

For recklessness to be proven, Gill said the officer would have needed to be consciously aware of the risk to Loki and disregard it. According to Gill, the evidence instead points to a mistake.

However, it’s worth noting that Naccarato refused to be interviewed during the investigation, exercising his Fifth Amendment rights.

Timeline

After an investigation was performed, a timeline of events the day Loki died was recorded:

6 a.m. — Naccarato began his day with a joint search operation, which utilized Loki and another search dog

2 p.m. — Naccarato returned to the K9 “Kennel” building and took a lunch break. The kennel is an air-conditioned building with indoor kennels that connect via dog doors to an outdoor fenced run. It is used to keep police service dogs when they’re not being utilized at the prison, according to Gill.

2:39 p.m. — Naccarato and another K9 officer deploy to a search call inside the prison warehouse. They loaded their K9s into a Ford Intercept belonging to the UDC.

2:45 p.m. — After going briefly inside without Loki, Naccarato retrieves Loki and walks inside the prison warehouse to perform the search.

Related: K9 officer found dead inside handler’s vehicle at state correctional facility

3:02 p.m. — Naccarato and K9 Loki return to the truck, which was left running, and Loki is put inside the truck. Naccarato returns to the warehouse while the truck is still running.

3:12 p.m. — Naccarato drove Loki and the other officer back to the kennel building, parking in front of the building and turned the truck off. Both officers exit the truck, leaving Loki, and walk inside the kennel building where they left their vests and bags.

3:13 p.m. — Naccarato went inside the nearby security building while the other officer went to another building.

3:32 p.m. — Naccarato and the other officer are requested to respond to an ongoing incident in the prison. The two walked back to the kennel where they retrieved their vests and bags before learning the incident resolved itself. However, there was another call requesting they return to the prison warehouse to search for a missing tool.

3:44 p.m. — The two officers are joined by a third K9 officer and ride in a Dodge Ram to the prison warehouse to search for the missing tool, which took hours.

Read the full story at KSLTV.com.