Florida man says he killed an aggressive iguana — and claims Stand Your Ground defense
Was it a case of the killer iguana? Or a case of an iguana getting killed?
A South Florida man claimed one of the big lizards, critters not known for harming more than the local vegetation for a good meal, attacked him. After a bloody tussle, the iguana wound up dead — and he wound up arrested.
Then came this:
The man’s lawyers last week invoked Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and asked for the animal cruelty charge, a felony, to be dropped in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. The law states that people can use or threaten to use deadly force to defend themselves or others if they think they’re in danger of being killed or seriously harmed.
PJ Nilaja Patterson, 43, and the three-foot green iguana faced off last September in Lake Worth Beach. The case was first reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Prosecutors say Patterson was the aggressor. Patterson’s lawyers say it was the iguana.
Patterson’s lawyers say he was trying to help the iguana, which he noticed crossing the street.
He grabbed the iguana and took it to safety, when a crowd of people gathered and began petting the critter, according to court documents. At one point, the iguana appeared agitated, and when Patterson attempted to grab it again to take it elsewhere, it showed its teeth in a “threatening manner,” according to court documents.
“The vicious animal got the best of Patterson and savagely bit his right arm,” according to court files. He feared that the “wild beast” would continue to attack him and possibly hurt other people in the area. He also believed that the iguana could have injected poison into him and “rushed to incapacitate the iguana” to “preserve the antidote.”
Man vs. Iguana ended with Patterson needing 22 staples in his right arm and the lizard dead.
Prosecutors say surveillance video obtained from Lake Worth Utilities shows that the iguana was not a threat to anyone and that Patterson taunted and harassed the animal.
Iguanas, slow-looking but quick-escape artists, are known to run from danger. The invasive reptiles are a common sight in South Florida. They’re not aggressive and are not a threat to people or pets, Zoo Miami’s animal expert Ron Magill has previously told the Miami Herald. They can get you sick with their poop, which carries strains of salmonella. But if someone tries to grab them, they might bite or use their tail or claws in defense.
The video shows Patterson dragging the iguana by the tail, “tormenting” it and stepping on it, according to Patterson’s arrest affidavit with Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control.
At one point, the iguana, in defense mode, bites Patterson, which sends him into a “violent rage,” according to the affidavit.
“PJ Patterson had multiple opportunities to regain his composure and stop assaulting the iguana, but instead PJ Patterson chose to stalk the helpless iguana and deliver vicious strikes to the animal,” the affidavit said.
The iguana eventually ran and hid under a car but Patterson followed it, according to prosecutors. They say he kept kicking the animal, swinging it by its tail and throwing it around. He kicked it at least 17 times, Eventually, the animal fell unconscious and later died.
A necropsy exam showed that the iguana had a lacerated liver, a fractured pelvis, a lacerated tongue and blood in its mouth and abdomen, according to Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. The “painful and terrifying” injuries were caused from blunt force trauma, the veterinarian who examined the iguana said in the report.
People in Florida are allowed to humanely kill iguanas, which means they die instantly and don’t suffer, on private property with landowner permission or on 25 public lands in South Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
In the end, Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen ruled that Patterson did not meet the criteria set forth for Stand Your Ground immunity.
Patterson will continue to face the animal cruelty charge. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 8:54 AM.
