LOS ANGELES — The man who reportedly shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stole her dogs last year has taken a plea deal. He has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.

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James Howard Jackson has pleaded no contest to a count of attempted murder, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office per The Associated Press. Jackson was reportedly one of three men and two accomplices in a violent robbery in Los Angeles last year, where Lady Gaga’s dog walker was shot and her French dogs were stolen.

Officials say the connection with Lady Gaga was a coincidence, according to the AP. However, the motive was the value of hte French bulldogs. Apparently, the breed is valued at thousands of dollars.

Jackson and the other suspects drove around Hollywood on Feb. 24, 2021 searching for French bulldogs, according to prosecutors said previously. This is when they came upon Lady Gaga’s dog walker, Ryan Fischer, according to the AP. Fischer was shot as the suspects got the dogs in the robbery.

The DA’s office said, according to the AP, that Jackson reportedly admitted to “the allegation of inflicting great bodily injury and to a prior strike” and he has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Jackson was mistakenly freed on April 6 from a Los Angeles county jail where he was being held for his alleged involvement in the shooting of Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stealing her French bulldogs. In August, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that he was recaptured. He was mistakenly released due to a clerical error, LACSD said.

According to the AP, Jackson was one of five people arrested in connection with the attack on Lady Gaga’s dog walker and the stealing of her French bulldogs, which happened on February 24, 2021. One of three men charged in the case pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery. Jaylin Keyshawn White, 20, was sentenced to four years in a California state prison.

Fischer lost part of his lung as a result of the attack but has been recovering. Lady Gaga’s dogs were returned two days later by a woman who said she found the dogs tied up to a pole and had asked about the reward. According to the AP, she was charged with receiving stolen property.

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