Ivins Rosier was convicted in May for breaking into the Florida home of a trooper and shooting the officer's five-year-old German Shepherd two years ago. Drake, a former drug-sniffing dog, was euthanized five days later.
Rosier, who was 16 at the time of the incident but tried as an adult, was sentenced on Friday on charges of animal cruelty, armed burglary and shooting into an occupied building.
Palm Beach Post reported Circuit Judge Robin Rosenberg said she handed Rosier a tough sentence as she was bound by sentencing guidelines.
According to police, Rosier was one of three teens who broke into Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Boody's home on November 18, 2012.
Rosier, who had a history of run-ins with the police, is the first to be tried, according to Palm Beach Post.
Sun Sentinel reported that Rosier confessed to police he was the one who shot the dog.
During the two-day trial, patrol officer Boody cried as he told the court about returning home from work to find Drake, who he adopted in 2010, wounded.
Drake suffered broken limbs, bullet wounds in his head and jaw, massive blood loss and lethal damage to his esophagus.
"He was in obvious pain," Boody said, according to Sun Sentinel.
Days before Drake was euthanized, Rosier admitted to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Detective Philip DiMola during questioning that he shot the dog.
The November 22, 2012, interrogation was recorded and played to Palm Beach County jury during its deliberations on Friday, according to Sun Sentinel.
"If you shoot that dog and he dies, that's murder of a law enforcement officer," DiMola pressed Rosier in the interrogation video.
Meanwhile, Rosier's attorneys, Jack Fleishman and Rachel Preefer, asked Judge Rosenberg to sentence the teen as a juvenile with a six-year prison terms.
However she said she didn't feel that was appropriate after the court heard Rosier had faced previous juvenile charges for grand theft, battery, lewd and lascivious molestation and false imprisonment.
During the November 2012 shooting, he was wearing an ankle monitor for a previous burglary charge which officers used to link him to the crime scene.
Rosier told Rosenberg he was misunderstood and blamed his problems on drug and alcohol addiction.
"The vicious ruthless person that I’ve been portrayed to be, that’s not who I am, that’s not who I’ll ever be," Rosier said.
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