Wayne County District Attorney Rick Healy said the trial against Christine Mulcahy (aka Christina Mulcahy) will begin on Oct. 14. Charged with three counts of animal cruelty, if convicted Healy said he intends to ask for the maximum sentence allowed under law for the misdemeanor charges, a total of two years in prison. Mulcahy would also lose ownership of the surviving horse. Mulcahy is currently out on bail.
Mulcahy, 23, of Broadmore Trail, was indicted by a Wayne County grand jury on June 17 after deputies found two dead horses on an abandoned property in Palmyra, near the Marion town line.
Deputies were searching for a missing woman on June 7 when they came upon the abandoned property at 2666 Lyon Road and began to investigate. One deputy found the carcass of a dead Appaloosa gelding horse they would later learn was named Gunner.
The property was searched as animal cruelty investigators launched a new investigation into the horse’s death. An autopsy performed by the forensic lab at Cornell University later showed the animal had died from starvation.
In the course of the investigation, deputies discovered the carcass of a second horse found several hundred yards away from the barn laying in an open field behind the house, Healy said. This horse, named Bentley, was too decomposed for an autopsy to be performed to confirm or disprove Mulcahy’s claim that the animal had died of a heart attack earlier this year, Healy said. No charges are being brought against Mulcahy for this horse’s death.
It was learned that Mulcahy owned the property and three horses, the third of which, named Stormie, had been taken to a barn in Rush after Mulcahy discovered Gunner dead. Healy said Stormie was checked by a veterinarian and found to be malnourished due to a lack of food and water for an extended period of time. The horse was seized as evidence in the investigation, but he remains at the stable in Rush where he is recovering, Healy said.
The charges against Mulcahy allege she “deprived an animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink” for Stormie and Gunner, ultimately resulting in Gunner’s death, the indictment states. The third count cites the poor living conditions Gunner was left in, in which Mulcahy neglected “to provide it with a clean, healthy or sanitary living environment, including proper bedding,” adding to the cruelty the animal endured, the indictment paperwork states.
Mulcahy turned herself in at the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office in Lyons. In her statement to police, Mulcahy said she moved in with her dad in the beginning of May and would come every other day to Palmyra to care of the horses, but she admitted she knew both horses were starving, authorities allege.
“I couldn’t take care of him,” she wrote in her statement about Gunner. “He died. It’s my fault. I loved that horse. But I couldn’t get rid of him or ask for help. I should have asked for help but didn’t.”
She went on to state that she tried to care for Gunner as best she could, but was financially unable to give him the care he needed. She also admitted to knowing that both horses were starving, adding that it was why she moved Stormie to the stable in Rush.
(Wayne Post - July 8, 2014)
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