World Courant
Beaumont, Texas — A Texas man has been sentenced to greater than three years in jail after he admitted to kicking a cat, which he later set on hearth, based on court docket paperwork.
Donald Williams, of Beaumont, was sentenced Tuesday to 40 months in jail as a part of a plea settlement wherein he beforehand pleaded responsible to animal crushing and aiding and abetting, based on paperwork filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Jap District of Texas.
The legal professional for the 30-year-old Williams didn’t instantly reply to a cellphone name searching for remark.
In line with Davilyn Walston, a spokesperson for U.S. Legal professional Damien Diggs, federal prosecutors labored with Texas prosecutors to find out whether or not the fees ought to be filed in state or federal court docket.
“Typically, state penalties will not be as extreme on the subject of notably critical offenders,” Walston mentioned.
Williams might have confronted as little as two years in jail beneath Texas regulation if he had been discovered responsible of animal cruelty or abuse.
He was charged beneath the federal Stopping Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which prohibits harming animals and displaying movies of animal abuse.
The paperwork present that Williams and Decorius Mire discovered the cat in a car parking zone in October 2021 and that Williams kicked the animal prefer it was a soccer. Mire filmed the kick together with his cellular phone and later posted the video to social media.
The felony criticism within the case states {that a} third unknown particular person set the cat on hearth shortly after kicking it 15 to twenty ft.
Mire additionally pleaded responsible as a part of a plea settlement and was sentenced to 18 months in jail in July 2023.
A Texas man has been convicted of kicking a cat that prosecutors say was later set on hearth
World Information,Subsequent Large Factor in Public Knowledg
