An Athens man was recently sentenced to prison after
pleading guilty to charges that he placed a cat in a dog’s cage to watch it be
killed.
In addition to aggravated animal cruelty, 21-year-old
Jahmal Anthony Swaby pleaded guilty to threatening a witness who had called
police to report the cat was being killed at Swaby’s home on Conrad Drive. He
also pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and theft by receiving
stolen property.
Western Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge David
Sweat on May 28 sentenced Swaby to eight years in prison and 12 years on
probation. The sentencing order signed by the judge indicates that Swaby’s
penalty did not result from a negotiated plea agreement.
Codefendant Trevaughn Miquan Thomas, 21, previously pleaded
not guilty to animal cruelty charges. His case is still pending in Clarke
County Superior Court. According to Athens-Clarke County police, Conrad Drive
residents reported Sept. 30 that they were in their home and heard a cat in
distress. Going outside to investigate, they told police, they saw the cat in a
cage outside Swaby’s and Thomas’ home being chased around by a dog.
One of the witnesses described the cat as “running around
inside the dog cage screaming for its life,” according to police, and said
Swaby and Thomas were urging the dog to “get it.” The suspects reportedly
laughed each time a witness yelled for them to stop.
One of the witnesses said that after calling 911, she saw
the cat was “running for its life while injured,” according to police. Police
said when officers arrived the cat was dead and the dog was still biting the
carcass. One officer noted in an incident report that the caged dog appeared to
be “angry” and “was biting and jumping towards me.”
The officer further noted that there were several other
young cats in the yard that appeared to have come from the same litter of
kittens.
According to police, one of the witnesses reported that when
Swaby later walked past her home, he pointed two fingers “similar in shape of a
gun.” The woman told police she believed Swaby meant to “threaten or intimidate
her.”
During the subsequent investigation, police said Swaby was
found to be in possession of a stolen revolver. He was not supposed to have
firearms under the terms of his first-offender probation from a 2013 burglary
conviction.
