Lady Gaga's dog walker shooter sentenced to 21 years in prison

vt-author-image

By James Kay

Article saved!Article saved!

The man who was charged with shooting Lady Gaga's dog walker has been sentenced to 21 years behind bars.

James Howard Jackson, 20, was arrested in 2021 in connection to a shooting that saw Ryan Fischer - Lady Gaga's dog walker - hospitalized and the star's two dogs - Koji and Gustav - stolen, per CNN.

The report also states that Jackson was one of three men traveling around Los Angeles looking for bulldogs to dognap when they came across Fischer and the dogs.

The men jumped out of the car and attacked Fischer, who struggled back against the trio. One of the men then shot the dogwalker and fled with the animals.

The dogs were later returned after Lady Gaga put out a $500,000 reward for them. Fischer survived his attacks after suffering critical injuries.

Jackson has now been sentenced to 21 years behind bars for his part in the attack, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said in a statement on Monday.

As cited by CNN, the attacker pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder and "admitted the allegation of inflicting great bodily injury and to a prior strike."

Jackson was one of five men charged with the attack. Harold White also pleaded no contest to one count of an ex-convict being in possession of a gun and will be sentenced next year.

Jaylin White, 20, pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree robbery and admitted that a member of the group was indeed armed during the attack. He was sentenced to four years behind bars.

Earlier this year, Jackson was accidentally released from prison due to a "clerical error", the day after he appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom, per TMZ.

NBC News reported that the attacker's records were not updated correctly after the case, and this resulted in the man being set free. He was later found in August and was returned to police custody.

size-full wp-image-1263182038
Lady Gaga. Credit: Ian West / Alamy

Per TMZ, Fischer suffered a collapsed lung during the attack and had severe mobility issues due to his injuries.

The Los Angeles police department reported at the time that the men were unaware of who the dogs belonged to, they were seeking French Bulldogs due to the breed fetching a high price.

Featured image credit: A.A. Gill / Alamy