HUNTSVILLE — Michael John Edmonds said that it was time for him to take responsibility for a horrendous crime he committed close to three years ago.

On April 1, 2009, Edmonds was riding in a car with Alfonso Hernandez, Caleb McGough and Arturo Hernandez when the group turned down Four Notch Road in southeast Walker County. That’s when a dog belonging to local war hero Marcus Luttrell began chasing the vehicle.

“I shot it,” Edmonds testified in the 278th District Court on Tuesday.

Edmonds was called as a witness by the state in the animal cruelty trial of Alfonso Hernandez on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Edmonds, who was supposed to go to trial as well, changed his plea to guilty in the case concerning the death of DASY, a dog owned by Luttrell, who is a highly decorated Navy SEAL and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

While Edmonds admitted he was the one who pulled the trigger, Alfonso Hernandez is also facing a state jail felony charge of cruelty to non-livestock animals. Edmonds testified that earlier in the evening Alfonso Hernandez shot another dog and got out of the car after DASY was killed and hit the dog with a wooden bat.

“He hit it and kicked it repeatedly,” Edmonds said.

Alfonso Hernandez’s defense attorney, Fritz Barnett, argued that Edmonds was only now changing his story after some sort of deal had been worked out with either the Walker County District Attorney’s Office, the Texas Rangers, which helped in the investigation, or some other law enforcement agency.

“(Edmonds) must have cut some sort of deal because why else would he change his plea and tell a story that nobody else has heard except for maybe his lawyer?” Barnett asked Judge Jerry Winfree, who was sitting in for Ken Keeling, while trying to get the court to disclose if Edmonds had any pending legal cases other than the animal cruelty charge.

Edmonds’ attorney, Bryan Cantrell, told Winfree that nothing was on the table as far as a plea deal was concerned.

“My client’s oath and plea had nothing to do with any kind of deal,” Cantrell said.

“My decision was to own up to what I did,” Edmonds said when he took the stand. “It wasn’t right. I owed it to Mr. Luttrell and to my family.”

During opening arguments, assistant district attorney Stephanie Stroud said that in the early morning hours of April 1, 2009, Luttrell heard gunshots near his house on Four Notch Road. Luttrell went to investigate and found DASY, a Labrador retriever which had been given to him to heal emotional wounds after he returned from Afghanistan, dead in the road from an apparent gunshot wound.

Luttrell chased the suspects in his vehicle through Walker and San Jacinto counties before officers in Polk County pulled over the other car, which was being driven by McGough. Edmonds and Alfonso and Arturo Hernandez were passengers.

Texas Ranger Steve Jeter was called in to help the Walker County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation. Jeter testified Tuesday that after interviewing everyone except Edmonds, he was able to present a grand jury with evidence to indict Edmonds and Alfonso Hernandez with charges of cruelty to animals.

“They said that they went out road hunting, shooting possums, raccoons and squirrels and other animals of that nature,” Jeter said.

The state presented into evidence a recording of Jeter’s interview with Alfonso Hernandez the day after the incident. Alfonso Hernandez said that they went driving around because there was nothing else to do.

“We started driving around and shooting animals, rabbits,” Alfonso Hernandez said in the recording. “... (Edmonds) shot two dogs.”

Edmonds testified that earlier in the evening before he and Alfonso Hernandez picked up McGough and Arturo Hernandez, that Alfonso Hernandez had shot a dog. They continued to ride around and that is when they picked up McGough and Arturo Hernandez and went back to Edmond’s house to get a .357-caliber handgun, which was used to kill DASY.

Edmonds said they were driving down a dirt road and that he heard a dog barking. The dog was chasing the car and that is when he shot it. He said the others wanted to turn around and go back and that is when Alfonso Hernandez got out of the car and hit the dog with the bat.

Barnett asked Edmonds about the first dog that was shot that night. Edmonds said Hernandez shot that dog and that they were the only two in the car at the time.

Barnett asked who was driving then and Edmonds said Alfonso Hernandez. Barnett then asked how Alfonso Hernandez could have shot the dog if he was driving. Edmonds changed his story and said McGough was driving when the first dog was shot by Alfonso Hernandez.

“How could McGough have been driving if you had not picked him up yet?” Barnett asked.

Edmonds said it had been a while since the incident and that he remembered he was driving and Alfonso Hernandez was in the backseat when the first dog was shot and they had not picked up the other two yet.

Barnett also questioned why the Texas Rangers got involved in the case and that if it was because Luttrell had called Gov. Rick Perry.

“This is about friendships. Why else would a Texas Ranger have investigated this case?” Barnett said. “It is a tragic thing that a man’s dog was killed, but two young men don’t need to go to prison for it.”

Testimony in the case is set to resume today.