GASTONIA, N.C. -- A man accused of stomping a puppy to death told a Gaston County judge on Friday, "I just want to get the facts straight."

Judge Ralph Gingles quickly reminded Timothy Loftis that he was not on trial and the facts were not in dispute during his bond hearing. He will remain in jail on a $35,000 bond.

Loftis is accused of stomping on the head of his girlfriend's Chihuahua. The dog, named Tequila, was just a few weeks old and their neighbor, Robert Jordan, said it could fit in the palm of your hand.

His daughters and several other children on South 12th Street in Bessemer City enjoyed playing with the puppy. Madison Jordan, 7, said, "We would hug it and kiss it all the time."

She saw the dog after police found its body Thursday.

"I started crying because it broke my heart," she said, her eyes starting to water.

Robert Jordan said, "I don't see how anybody in their right mind could do any animal that way."

Police said Loftis got into an argument with his girlfriend, who asked Eyewitness News not to reveal her name, and took his frustrations out on her puppy. In court Friday, the prosecutor said that Loftis stomped on the dog's skull.

In the arrest warrant, the arresting officer wrote that Loftis at first claimed he didn't kill the dog, but then said, "I been to jail three times for assault on a female and now I'm going for killing a dog. It was sickly looking."

The warrant states Loftis then used harsh language to explain that the dog wasn't house trained and ended by saying, "and I stomped on it."

Not long after he was jailed, police said he made contact with his girlfriend, which was forbidden by a magistrate judge, and made even more inflammatory comments. That warrant claims he called the girlfriend and told her to, "come to jail and tell the magistrate that the dog was already dead or anything to get me out of jail." The girlfriend, who talked to reporter Ken Lemon by phone, said she refused, called him stupid and hung up the phone.

Loftis was then charged with violating a court order, so in addition to a $10,000 bond on a charge of animal cruelty, he also was given a $25,000 bond.