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Teen punished for killing cats
Spotsylvania teenager sentenced for killing feral cats at dump site.Date published: 9/8/2006 A teenager was sentenced yesterday to 50 hours of community service for shooting and killing feral cats at a trash dump in southern Spotsylvania County. The Partlow boy, who was 17 at the time of the offense, was convicted in June of three counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty in connection to the April 19 discovery of four dead feral cats at the Cole Hill trash site. The boy, whose name hasn't been released because he committed the offenses as a juvenile, was sentenced in Spotsylvania Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court by Judge Joseph Ellis. Spotsylvania animal control officers started investigating the deaths of the four cats after a woman who had been feeding the animals found their bodies at the trash site on Partlow Road. Shell casings were found near the remains, and necropsy reports showed the cats had been shot. The boy, who has now turned 18 and graduated from Spotsylvania High School, was charged with four felony counts of animal cruelty. Prosecutors said the boy confessed to three of the killings, which was the number of offenses that Ellis convicted him of. Ellis convicted him of misdemeanors after determining that the boy did not intend to torture the cats. It could have been a felony if animal torture was involved. Spotsylvania prosecutor Kim Hackbarth said the boy told investigators that he didn't stay to watch the cats die, which Hackbarth said would have indicated torture. He told investigators that he doesn't know why he did it and is sorry for what happened. Hackbarth said the boy, who was represented by attorney Phillip Sasser, has had no previous run-ins with the law and is a good student now enrolled in college. She said a psychological evaluation revealed no issues, so she did not ask for counseling or probation to be part of the sentence. "He's just a normal kid other than this incident," Hackbarth said. The convictions can be dismissed from the boy's record if he stays out of trouble for a year, Hackbarth said. Hackbarth said the boy has already done about 40 hours of community service with the SPCA. She said Ellis tacked on another 50 hours of community service to that. She said that's a pretty standard sentence in juvenile misdemeanor cases. Members of the Rappahannock Humane Society submitted paperwork to the court urging that a stern punishment be handed down to the teenager to send a message to the community. They asked that the boy get counseling, a fine, 200 hours of community service and 30 days in juvenile detention. The paperwork indicated that the cats that were shot were small and timid. It called the shooting "cavalier and aggressive." The group also submitted a videotape of the Cole Hill site. That tape showed bullet holes in a sign at the site, and it depicted where the cats were killed in the woods behind the Dumpsters. "These cats were shot right where they eat," said humane society President Thea Verdak in the video. To reach BILL FREEHLING:
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 9/8/2006
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