The bat-wielding man accused of pummeling a good Samaritan who tried to stop him from abusing his dog in the Bronx allegedly admitted, “I beat his ass,” prosecutors said — as the suspect’s sister maintained Tuesday he was innocent and acting in self defense.
Rubin Bartley, 34, was charged with attempted murder for bludgeoning 35-year-old Marlon Hay – who remained hospitalized in a medically induced coma – during a fight Sunday afternoon at East 135th Street and Third Avenue in Mott Haven, cops said.
“I beat him,” Bartley admitted to police, according to the criminal complaint against him. “I beat his ass.”
The suspect was allegedly putting his hands around the neck of his 1-year-old female Doberman mixed breed when Hay tried to intervene, according to police sources.
But then Bartley allegedly turned his attention to Hay, punching and knocking him to the ground, according to sources and prosecutors.
The two men began grappling on the ground, and at some point, Bartley allegedly grabbed the bat and beat Hay to a bloody pulp, authorities said.
Surveillance footage showed him using the bat to repeatedly hit Hay in the face, head, chest and groin while he laid on the ground, according to the complaint.
“He decided to do what we all should do as humans and look out for animals as well as people,” Hay’s sister-in-law Eunette Baronette, 44, told The Post of her injured relative.
“And look what happened to him. He stepped in, and it could have cost him his life,” Baronette added. “Now he’s not doing well.”
Bartley’s older sister, however, denied that her brother had been beating his dog, and accused Hay of being the aggressor.
“My brother was outside walking his dog. And I’ve seen my brother – my brother raised pit bulls and Rottweilers and things of that nature. And yeah, he’s a little rough, but he’s not abusive,” April Pringle, who lives in Maryland, told The Post.
“And then the guy, I guess, intervened and asked him, you know, why he’s abusing the dog. They had words,” Pringle added. “They fought, and [Hay] went in his car to go get a bat, and my brother went to [get] the bat and took it and beat him with it. What would you have done?”
“So he defended himself, and I would have done the same thing,” she argued. “My brother is written up like he’s a monster.”
Hay lost multiple teeth in the attack and suffered bleeding to his forehead, lips, mouth, and nose, as well as cuts on his forehead and lips, and bruising and swelling on his face and eyes, prosecutors said.
He was intubated at Lincoln Medical Center Tuesday afternoon, and his face was swollen and crusted with dried blood.
A nurse said it remains to be seen whether Hay suffered any lasting damage – cognitive or other otherwise – during the beating.
“For him to put his life in danger, I really think [that’s] something needs to be highlighted,” Baronette, his sister-in-law, said.
“He’s the one who came out hurt the most, and he should be highlighted in a positive manner,” she said. “It will inspire a lot of people to go out and do the same thing. We’re proud of him.”
Baronette added that her badly-injured relative had nothing but “good intentions,” being an animal lover himself.
“We all have animals as pets, and that’s just how we grew up, to love animals,” she said. “He has always been an animal lover. He has a pit bull. He’s not doing too well in the hospital, given the situation.”
The dog was not seriously injured, and was brought by cops to the Center for Animal Care and Control for medical treatment by cops, sources said.
Bartley was ordered held on $25,000 cash bail or $75,000 bond during his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court Monday. His next hearing in the case is set for Thursday.
His attorney, Angel G. Frau, declined to comment when reached by The Post Tuesday,
Bartley was previously arrested for criminal mischief and criminal trespass in the Bronx in late June, records show.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
