A Valencia man was sentenced to one year in county jail for taping a cat’s paws together
A Valencia man was sentenced to one year in county jail for taping a cat’s paws together, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Clarita Station.
Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Greenberg said Tyler Scott Vest, 23, also was sentenced to three years formal probation and ordered to complete 24 hours of animal cruelty counseling.
The defendant and his girlfriend Kylie Stringer, 27, of Canyon Country, both entered no contest pleas on Jan. 13, the date of their arraignment.
Vest and Stringer pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of cruelty to an animal and Vest also pleaded no contest to a felony count of possession for sale of a controlled substance, heroin, in case PA085466.
Stringer was sentenced on March 2 to three years of informal probation and was ordered to complete a six-month drug treatment program, 15 days of Caltrans service and 24 hours of animal cruelty counseling.
Both defendants also are banned from owning, possessing or having direct contact with animals for five years and they had to forfeit their cat.
Both defendants were approached by Los Angeles County sheriff deputies after they were observed inside a vehicle parked near Sand Canyon and Soledad Canyon roads late at night on Jan. 9. Deputies conducted a narcotics investigation and recovered heroin from inside the vehicle, along with narcotic paraphernalia, the prosecutor said.
Also recovered from the car was a cat inside a pet carrier container. All four paws of the cat had been duct-taped and were further tied and bound together with additional duct tape, the prosecutor added.
Press Release http://da.lacounty.gov
About the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey leads the largest local prosecutorial office in the nation. Her staff of nearly 1,000 attorneys, 300 investigators and 800 support staff members is dedicated to protecting our community through the fair and ethical pursuit of justice and the safeguarding of crime victims’ rights