By Tim SchmidtRecord Managing EditorA St. Louis man involved in a dogfighting ring was sentenced to five years in prison last week.Ronald Christopher Nall, 48, was sentenced to five years on two felony counts for dogfighting. Circuit Judge Wes Dalton ordered the sentences to run concurrent.Nall was immediately booked following the sentencing, but was released on a furlough to help get his child registered for school. Dalton ordered Nall to return to jail Aug. 21.The dogfight occurred March 25, 2009, at a residence in the 23000 block of Laura Lane in Wright City, authorities said. Police said Nall owned a dog used in a fight at the home and then sold the dog to an undercover Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper.Nall was charged in May 2010, but was not taken into custody until February 2014 when an arrest warrant was served. In June, a jury took less than 30 minutes to find Nall guilty of the felony charges at the close of a one-day trial.Nall, who represented himself in the case, maintained at last Tuesday’s sentencing hearing that he was innocent and was only present to sell his dog.“My intentions were not to fight no dogs,” he remarked.Prosecutors, however, disagreed. They recommended the five-year sentence since it was consistent with others convicted in the dogfighting ring.“He has failed to take full responsibility, made excuses and blamed others,” Assistant Prosecutor Catherine Hoag said. “He was clearly someone who was an active participant and not an innocent bystander.”The local dogfighting ring was connected to the biggest dog rescue in U.S. history in July 2009 and led to felony charges being filed against 12 suspects in Warren County.The fights were discovered by confidential informants working for state and federal agencies during a multi-state investigation that lasted more than a year.Dozens of pit bull terriers were seized in 2009 from at least three Warren County properties, two of which were located on Mark Petersen Lane south of Innsbrook and one on Highway J outside of Wright City, authorities said.More than 150 dogs were rescued in multiple raids conducted in eastern Missouri in July 2009. In all, authorities seized over 400 dogs following investigations elsewhere, including Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Mississippi.Ronald Christopher Nall