Indiana: Jesse Tyler arrested and charged after torturing and killing kitten

INDIANA -- A rural New Castle man was arrested this week after relatives said he had brutally attacked the family’s kitten.

Jesse Lee Tyler, 26, of the 1900 block of East Henry County Road 400-S, was charged Tuesday with cruelty to an animal.

A Henry County sheriff’s deputy said he was sent to Tyler’s home about 12:45 a.m. Tuesday after the New Castle man’s wife reported he was “highly intoxicated and had killed the family cat with his bare hands.”

The deputy wrote the kitten had obviously “suffered serious trauma and appeared to be close to death” when he arrived.

Tyler’s spouse and another witness said he had attacked the kitten after an argument “over the missing family dog that had run away during the ongoing thunderstorm.”

The witness – another adult member of the household – told the deputy she saw Tyler take the kitten out of its wire cage, “place its body between his knees, place his hands around the kitten’s neck and begin to squeeze and twist as if he was attempted to break the kitten’s neck and strangulate it,” the report said.

The deputy said the kitten remained motionless while he was at the home. Tyler’s wife said she intended to take the cat to a veterinarian’s office later in the morning "if" the animal appeared to still be breathing.

Deputies found Tyler in his garage, and took him into custody. He denied having been in an argument or harming the cat.

A breath test measured his blood-alcohol content at 0.164 percent, more than twice the legal limit for motorists in Indiana.

His wife said Tyler had been “struggling with anger issues.”

The cruelty charge filed by Henry County Prosecutor Joe Bergacs’ office is a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to one year in jail.

An initial hearing is set Sept. 5 in Henry Circuit Court 3.

(The Star Press - Aug. 30, 2017)