A Minneapolis man with a significant recent criminal history was sentenced this week to four years in prison for killing a woman’s dog inside her St. Paul apartment after the two argued.

The sentence handed down to 25-year-old Emmanuel Joe Ware Jr. in Ramsey County District Court on Monday will run at the same time as a four-year term he received in Hennepin County in March for possession of a firearm and ammunition by a person who is not eligible due to a conviction for a crime of violence.

The Ramsey County complaint says the woman told police that she left her West Side apartment on Jan. 9 to stay with her sister after she and Ware got into an argument. When she returned the next day, her bloodied and dead dog — a white Pomeranian named “Bug” — was hanging by his neck in her closet.

Officers saw a shattered mirror, blood “all over” the walls and the dog hanging. He had a deep cut to his eye. A knife block in the kitchen was missing two knives. A necropsy later revealed Bug had broken bones and stab wounds to his head.

The woman told police Ware sent her a series of threatening text messages after she went to her sister’s place. She said she is pregnant with Ware’s child and fearful of him because he was assaultive with her in the past, the complaint says.

Investigators spoke with Ware four days later at Hennepin County Jail, where he was booked Jan. 12 on the gun possession charge. Ware said he “loves Bug” and would never hurt him, and that he was with his girlfriend, “Fantasia,” in Minneapolis on the day in question, the complaint says.

Investigators pulled video surveillance footage from the apartment building, which showed Ware in the first-floor elevator lobby around 5 p.m. Jan. 9, and in the fourth-floor lobby around 7:45 p.m.

Investigators, with apartment surveillance photos in hand, returned to the jail on Jan. 27 to interview Ware again. He said he lied to them before and was at the apartment on Jan. 9, but reiterated he did not kill the dog.

Ware pleaded guilty to felony mistreating or torturing an animal on March 20 after reaching an agreement with the prosecution.

Another case was dismissed at sentencing as part of the plea deal: felony mail theft after police say video surveillance at the woman’s St. Paul apartment building showed him stealing a package of Christmas gifts from the mail room on Dec. 4.

Other charges, convictions

Ware has one pending case, which is set for a July trial. He was charged with misdemeanor domestic assault stemming from a Dec. 11 incident involving the woman at the HealthPartners Clinic on Wabasha Street in St. Paul during an OB/GYN appointment.

Court documents in that case say Ware and the woman argued over her pregnancy. While they were alone in an exam room, Ware allegedly picked her up and slammed her into a wall. When medical staff went into the room, Ware ran from the clinic.

He was charged by warrant two days later and eluded St. Paul police until his Jan. 12 arrest in Minneapolis after the woman reported he threatened her while flashing a gun. For admitting to the gun possession charge, a felony threats of violence charge was dismissed as part of a March 26 plea deal he struck with Hennepin County prosecutors.

Ware picked up all the cases while on intensive supervised release after serving three years and three months for aiding and abetting first-degree robbery out of Hennepin County. He was released from prison on May 28, 2024.

He has two other felony convictions out of Hennepin County: first-degree robbery in 2017 and fourth-degree possession of a controlled substance (cocaine and ecstasy) in 2019.