Irvine man pleads guilty after standoff and attempt to strangle police dog

An Irvine man who tried to strangle a police dog during a standoff with officers after he threatened to kill his estranged wife pleaded guilty Monday to several charges including injuring a police animal, according to court records.

An Orange County Superior Court judge sentenced Daniel Hall Taylor, 46, to two years in state prison for making criminal threats, recklessly evading police, resisting an officer and injuring the police dog, but immediately suspended that sentence in favor of three years of probation and a short jail term.

In April, Taylor threatened to shoot officers when they arrived at his Irvine home to investigate threatening phone calls he made, according to authorities.

“Suspect stated he was going to kill his estranged wife by strangulation,” police wrote in court documents. “Furthermore, he stated he was willing to die by means of police (suicide by cop).”

Taylor was angry because his wife recently had filed for a restraining order, according to police. They wrote that Taylor has bipolar disorder and had been violent in the past toward his wife and two children.

In court documents, police alleged he told his wife, “If I can’t have my kids, you can’t either.”

Taylor fled when officers tried to arrest him, sparking a high-speed chase that spanned four cities and included Taylor driving the wrong way on roads and ramming officers’ patrol cars, police wrote in court documents.

The chase ended with a standoff outside the Lamoureux Justice Center in Orange, where officers negotiated with Taylor for hours. He eventually got out of his car but refused to cooperate further, police said at the time.

That’s when officers used a police dog that bit Taylor on the arm, according to court documents.

“Taylor grasped the service dog by the neck and attempted to strangle the service dog,” police wrote. “Taylor stated he wanted the police to kill him because he lacked the courage to kill himself.”

Taylor’s sentence included a 200-day jail term, but based on the time he’s served since his April 12 arrest and credit for good behavior, he’s completed all but about two weeks.

A judge also ordered that Taylor be released to a county-run mental health care program as soon as possible.

Jail records list Taylor’s occupation as a paramedic, but police wrote in court documents that he is unemployed.