Dale Adam Johnson, 22, of Hurricane Road, Keene, was indicted on two felony counts of animal cruelty in March.
The March 27 indictments allege Johnson “did purposely torture an animal by strangling to death,” the two cats named Honey and Bo.
During the plea and sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon, Judge David Ruoff asked Johnson if he was pleading guilty to “the strangling to death of Honey” and “the strangling to death of Bo,” to which Johnson said yes to both.
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| Photo: Meghan Pierce, Union Leader |
Public defender Benjamin Schiffelbein CLAIMED the incidents were essentially caused by mental health and substance abuse issues, which Johnson has been addressing.
“I don’t think you can separate this from a relationship, but it’s not the typical domestic violence,” Schiffelbein said. “He is here to take responsibility.”
Johnson spoke to Ruoff saying he wants to take responsibility for his actions and asked to say sorry to his ex-girlfriend, Shannon Fitzpatrick, 22, who was in the courtroom.
The Keene woman declined to make a statement to the court, but was asked by Ruoff if she wanted a no contact order as part of the sentencing, which she declined.
“Even through this isn’t a domestic violence case per say, there is a strong correlation between the two,” Ruoff said. “It’s a huge red flag when there is this kind of conduct against an animal.”
Johnson was sentenced to 365 days to the Cheshire County House of Corrections, with 180 days suspended on good behavior, and two years’ probation upon release. He was also ordered to have several evaluations done, some of which could be done while he is in the jail, Ruoff said.
So basically he gets 3 months in county jail (not prison) for each cat he grabbed and slowly strangled to death while they fought for their life. That's the value of your beloved cat that is tortured to death - 3 months.
Johnson was out on electronic monitoring and $2,000 cash or surety bail with the conditions that he was to have no unsupervised contact with animals and that he be drug tested at the Cheshire County House of Correction two times a week.
After pleading guilty Wednesday, Johnson said goodbye to his parents and was taken into custody to serve his sentence.
The day after the incident the woman noticed that her cat Honey was missing.
“When she confronted Dale about the missing cat, Dale stated he strangled her and dumped her off at the Humane Society,” according to court documents.
At the same time he confessed to her that he had killed her other cat, Bo, which had been missing for two months.
After the woman’s father reported this, police began collected Facebook messages between the ex-couple and interviewed Johnson.
In one, Johnson wrote, “I choked her,” referring to what happened to Honey, according to the affidavit.
Johnson initially denied killing the cats, but eventually confessed to killing them, police said.
(The Union Leader-Oct 26, 2017)
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