"It's killing me, I don't even know what I'm saying half the time, I'm in such a dwall, I can't believe she's gone," said the dog's owner, Barbara Hitchman.
Hitchman said she was at home Thursday afternoon when she discovered her little Chihuahua Lily had somehow gotten loose.
She drove up and down the neighborhood looking for Lily. It wasn't long before she found the dog lying on the ground.
That's when a neighbor told Hitchman that she saw 58-year-old Larry Jaurequi strike the dog with a golf club.
"She said he lined up as if he was doing a golf shot, and he just whopped her, and she said she went so far in the air, she did three summersaults and hit the pavement," Hitchman said.
Hitchman said she then went across the street to confront the man.
"I said, 'You're insane, you're a psycho, you need locking away,'" she told Jaurequi. "And he said, 'Try it, you better get out of here too.'" Hitchman said Jaurequi also commented that her dog should not have been on the loose.
Later that night, the sheriff's department arrested Jaurequi. The dog died at a veterinary clinic Friday morning.
"I don't believe this dog was a threat to this man in any way, he just for unknown reasons attacked the dog with a golf club," said Riverside County Sheriff's Department Cpl. Courtney Donowho.
Jaurequi could not be reached for comment Friday.
"I mean a person like him, he's sick, that's all I can say is he's sick, totally sick," said Hitchman. "And I hope he gets his just desserts, all people like him should be locked away."
The Riverside District Attorney's Office is considering whether or not they will file felony criminal animal cruelty charges against Jaurequi. Hitchman said she is considering hiring her own attorney.
