World Courant
SAN FRANCISCO — A person accused of finishing up a three-hour taking pictures rampage in Northern California and killing 81 animals, together with miniature horses, goats and chickens, has pleaded not responsible to animal cruelty and different fees.
Vicente Arroyo, 39, made his first court docket look Thursday after Monterey County sheriff’s deputies arrested him earlier this week for allegedly utilizing a number of weapons to shoot animals saved in pens and cages on a property within the small group of Prunedale.
The animals’ homeowners didn’t wish to be named or converse to the media, Monterey County Sheriff’s Capt. Andres Rosas advised The Related Press on Friday.
“I went there and it was fairly a traumatic scene. These had been folks’s pets,” he mentioned.
One of many miniature horses belonged to the proprietor of the property the place the animals had been housed, and the opposite 80 belonged to somebody who rented the land to accommodate their pets, Rosas mentioned.
In accordance with court docket data, Arroyo was accused of killing 14 goats, 9 chickens, seven geese, 5 rabbits, a guinea pig and 33 parakeets and cockatiels. Arroyo can also be accused of killing a pony named Fortunate and two miniature horses named Estrella and Princessa, KSBW-TV reported.
A number of the animals survived the taking pictures, which lasted a number of hours, however needed to be euthanized because of the severity of their accidents, Rosas mentioned.
Rosas mentioned Arroyo was residing in a camper in a winery subsequent to the property the place the animals had been saved and that the motive is just not but identified.
His lawyer, William Pernik, mentioned that after talking with Arroyo and his household, he turned involved about his shopper’s psychological well being and requested the choose for a psychological well being analysis.
“We’re coping with a person in opposition to whom very severe fees have been introduced and who doesn’t seem like in the proper way of thinking to know the proceedings in opposition to him,” Pernik mentioned.
Pernik mentioned Arroyo’s household had contacted a number of companies across the nation to get assist for him, however “sadly he didn’t obtain psychological well being care in time earlier than this tragic incident.”
The choose has ordered that Arroyo, who’s being held on $1 million bail, endure a psychiatric analysis.
The court docket will obtain an replace on Arroyo’s psychological state in two weeks, Pernik mentioned.
Authorities obtained a number of 911 calls about photographs fired round 3:25 a.m. Tuesday in Prunedale, a group about eight miles (13 kilometers) from town of Salinas, he mentioned.
Officers arriving on the scene heard gunshots and a shelter-in-place order was issued inside a five-mile radius.
Monterey County SWAT members had been deployed and the sheriff’s workplace additionally requested drone help from the close by Seaside Hearth Division and the Gonzales Police Division, Rosas mentioned.
In accordance with him, Arroyo was arrested with out incident by officers in an armored car.
Officers discovered a crashed pickup truck and eight firearms, together with lengthy weapons, shotguns and handguns, on the scene. After executing a search warrant on Arroyo’s RV, they discovered seven extra firearms, together with an unlawful AK-47 assault rifle, two ghost weapons and about 2,000 rounds of varied calibers of ammunition, Rosas mentioned.
Prosecutors have charged Arroyo with dozens of fees, together with animal cruelty, willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, unlawful possession of an assault weapon, vandalism, drug possession and making felony threats and terrorizing whereas in possession of a firearm as a felon.
“That is clearly essentially the most horrific animal cruelty case we have ever seen on this county, I am certain,” Chief Deputy District Lawyer Berkley Brannon advised KSBW-TV after Thursday’s listening to.
