Allen Superior Judge Wendy Davis on Thursday sentenced Knox, 55, of Fort Wayne to a year in prison for cruelty to an animal; torturing or mutilating a vertebrate animal. He was found guilty of that offense after a trial in October. But Knox actually faces a five-year term in prison because of a sentence he never served that was brought to light by investigation over the last month.
After his October conviction, the judge ordered the Allen County Probation Department to complete a pre-sentence investigation on Knox. That's a standard step taken before convicts are sentenced. The reports include detailed information about criminal history and other background to which the judge can refer in determining a prison sentence.
In this case, the report on Knox revealed that he had not served a four-year sentence for possession of cocaine handed down in 2007. At the time, Knox still had to finish an earlier felony sentence. When that sentence was completed in 2008, his attorney Stanley Campbell explained, the court did not catch the fact that Knox had additional time to serve.
Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards called it an “oversight'' of the Circuit Court. That court found him ineligible for work release, but neglected to set a time to send Knox to the state Department of Correction.
“Your criminal history has caught up with you,” Judge Davis told Knox. Davis noted that his record includes, by her count, four prior felony convictions and 17 prior misdemeanor convictions.
Knox must serve the four-year and one-year sentence one after the other. He told the judge he intends to appeal his conviction.
Knox brought this case of animal cruelty to the attention of the legal system himself by calling Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control to come and get the stray cat that had crept into his home and wouldn't leave.
According to court documents, animal control officers were dispatched to his home Dec. 4 because Knox called and complained that a cat was trapped in his house, and he couldn't get it out.
An animal-control officer found the cat in the home, but its head was wobbling and its eyes were rolling back and forth. The officer asked Knox about the cat's peculiar behavior, and Knox told the officer that the cat should be stunned, because he had kicked it hard, according to court documents.
Although the officer reported that Knox was laughing intermittently as he explained what happened, Knox said he had opened the door of his house and tried to get the cat to leave.
After the cat was removed from the home and examined by a veterinarian, what she found supported Knox's account. The cat appeared to have one of its long front fangs knocked out by a kick, and the vet also found scrapes and other injuries on the cat that made it appear the animal had been kicked more than once.
(News Sentinel - Nov 21, 2013)
Earlier:
Good! Hope shithead loses a few teeth in the joint.
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