A Minneapolis woman who admitted to throwing a puppy from a stolen pickup truck during a pursuit with Ramsey County deputies has been sentenced to three years of probation and ordered not to own animals.

Raylean Chastity Gurneau, 27, was a passenger in the truck when she threw the pitbull puppy into the path of a pursuing squad car in Arden Hills on Jan. 30. The puppy survived, but had a broken leg and several cuts. Despite surgery and behavioral rehabilitation, the dog was euthanized in April.

Gurneau pleaded guilty in August to animal cruelty and making a false 911 call, and on Monday Ramsey County District Judge Adam Yang gave her a downward departure from state sentencing guidelines.

Yang stayed a two-year prison sentence and ordered Gurneau, who had spent 171 days in custody after her arrest, to complete 50 hours of community service and “not to own or have custody over any pet or animal” during probation.

In March, Gurneau was also sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting animal cruelty in an unrelated case in which she and a man, allegedly Chue Feng Yang, dumped a severely wounded dog in a Bloomington parking lot in November 2021. The dog had been shot 10 to 12 times with a BB gun, including in an eye, which had to be surgically removed.

Yang, 33, of St. Paul, was fatally shot by FBI agents who were trying to arrest him on warrants from Ramsey and Hennepin counties on April 27 in Minneapolis. Yang was shot after he barricaded himself in a Minneapolis home and later came out with a shotgun pointed at Gurneau’s head, according to a federal search warrant. He and Gurneau were tied together when they came outside and he’d livestreamed himself talking to a negotiator.

Fake 911 call, real carjackings

According to the Ramsey County criminal complaint, a deputy saw the driver of a 2012 Ford F-150 speeding on Little Canada Road near Interstate 35E and go through a red light just before 11 p.m. Jan. 30. The driver, later determined to be Donovan Alan Goodman, fled the deputy, driving into opposing traffic along Rice Street before merging onto I-694 and going westbound in the eastbound lanes.

At about the same time, other deputies were dispatched to Interstate 35E and Little Canada Road for a reported carjacking that turned out to be a hoax. Gurneau, who identified herself as “Melissa,” told dispatch that a vehicle had been carjacked and someone had been shot.

Meanwhile, Goodman continued to flee the wrong way on I-694 at speeds up to 75 mph. He exited at Lexington Avenue, drove around tire spikes and went into opposing lanes of traffic. As deputies caught up, Gurneau threw the dog, which “rolled multiple times on the pavement,” the complaint said.

The truck was stopped after a deputy employed a PIT maneuver. Goodman and Yang ran, carjacked separate vehicles and evaded arrest, the complaint said.

Gurneau was arrested. She showed signs of an overdose and was given multiple doses of Narcan before being taken to Regions Hospital.

Inside a backpack found on Gurneau’s lap was about 189 grams of methamphetamine. It also included Goodman’s phone that Gurneau used to report the sham carjacking.

Deputies used drones and a blood trail to search for the puppy, which was found the next day cowering in snow. Overnight temperatures were in the single digits below zero. The dog was taken to an animal hospital and given the name Taho. Veterinary costs exceeded $15,000.

The dog was euthanized in April because he couldn’t overcome the “severe trauma and abuse” and there had been a series of biting incidents, according to a pet rescue organization that tried to provide him with behavioral rehabilitation.

Goodman arrested

Goodman was suspected of pointing a gun at a Minneapolis police officer and then carjacking an Uber driver with two passengers on Feb. 25. Later that day, he was arrested at a house in the 300 block of Burgess Street in St. Paul’s North End after an hour-long stand-off with police.

Goodman admitted to a Ramsey County sheriff’s office investigator and an FBI agent that he was driving the stolen pickup truck a month earlier in Little Canada and Arden Hills. He also said he knew methamphetamine was in the vehicle and admitted that when the pursuit ended he ran and then carjacked a vehicle he later ditched in Mounds View. He identified Yang as the other man in the pickup, and also said Gurneau threw the dog from the truck.

Federal prosecutors brought charges against Goodman, 34, in March. He pleaded guilty in June to two counts of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. He was sentenced last month to nearly 18 years in federal prison.