February 2, 2024
FREEHOLD – A Howell Township resident has been sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in state jail for deliberately killing his pet cat final 12 months, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago introduced Friday.
Christopher Sanchez, 29, was sentenced yesterday by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Scott C. Arnette.
An investigation into Sanchez’s actions was initiated on Friday, March 31, 2023, when members of the Howell Township Police Department dispatched to a residence for an unrelated matter discovered the physique of the cat exterior the home.
Members of the Howell Township Police Department and the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Humane Law Enforcement Division performed an investigation figuring out that the cat, named Lilith, had belonged to Sanchez, who used a pointy instrument to kill it two days earlier, recording photographs and video footage of the act.
Sanchez was arrested on the identical day because the preliminary police response. He has remained incarcerated on the Monmouth County Correctional Institution (MCCI) since, having pleaded responsible in December 2023 to third-degree Animal Cruelty by Unnecessarily or Cruelly Abusing a Living Animal, Resulting in its Death, and Simple Assault, a disorderly individuals offense. The Simple Assault cost was filed as a result of Sanchez bodily attacked his roommate shortly after killing the cat.
Judge Arnette yesterday recited a listing of further necessities past the jail time period, noting that Sanchez can be ordered to don’t have any contact with the sufferer of the assault, by no means to return to the scene of the crime, give up all of his privately owned firearms, and have interaction in 30 days of neighborhood service. He additionally obtained a everlasting ban on proudly owning or residing in a residence with any pet or animal, and was ordered to pay $525 in restitution – to cowl the cost of the necropsy that disproved his preliminary declare to authorities that the cat’s demise was a mercy killing necessitated by her being mortally injured from being struck by a car.
The case was prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutors Keri-Leigh Schaefer and Sevan Biramian.
