Cats stabbed, disembowled
Quakertown, PA (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Oct 8, 2002
County: Bucks
Disposition: Convicted
Case Images: 2 files available
Defendants/Suspects:
» William Casey George
» Matthew Fillman
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
Two 20-year-old men with criminal pasts were charged yesterday with killing two cats and maiming eight others as part of a drunken and destructive night last month in northern Bucks County.
Between dusk on Oct. 8 and dawn on Oct. 9, police charged, Matthew Fillman of Coopersburg and William Casey George of Richland Township:
- Threw a concrete block through the windshield of an unattended Quakertown police car.
- Shattered three Quakertown police car windows with BB shots.
- Eluded a Quakertown police officer who chased their car.
- Shot out two windows of the Richland Township police station with BB pellets.
In the end, their undoing was the attack on the cats on a Richland Township farm. They disemboweled three - two of which died - and stabbed seven others.
The two men bragged about the attack - which had received a great deal of local media attention - and a tip resulted in their arrest.
The probable cause affidavit filed yesterday stated that James Kafka told police that on Oct. 8 he and George were in a band that played at a tavern on California Road until about 11 p.m., and that George agreed to meet him later but did not.
On Oct. 12, the affidavit said, George went to Kafka's home and related everything about the night of Oct. 8-9.
"George told Kafka that he and Fillman were drunk and walking in the woods when they came upon the [cats]. He said that he and Fillman messed up some cats, and that he used a knife on the cats."
Yesterday, a criminal complaint was filed before District Justice C. Robert Roth, charging Fillman and George with three felonies: burglary, criminal trespass and criminal conspiracy.
Fillman was also charged with four misdemeanors, including animal cruelty, and George with five.
Roth set bail of $75,000 for Fillman, which he did not post. Roth also set a preliminary hearing date for Nov. 22 and remanded Fillman to the Bucks County Prison in Doylestown.
George did not appear. There is an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
"This is the most charges [of animal abuse] in a single case ever filed in this state," Anne Irwin, executive director of the Bucks County SPCA, said in an interview.
Despite their youth, both defendants have multiple criminal convictions in Bucks County.
In April 2001, George was arrested on assault charges for beating a 19-year-old man in Richland Township with a baseball bat during a fight over George's girlfriend. The victim suffered a broken arm and brain injuries that required hospitalization for treatment of convulsions.
George was placed on two years' probation and ordered to undergo a mental-health evaluation, court records show.
In January, George pleaded guilty to assaulting a Quakertown man who had confronted him for blasting his car stereo and blowing his horn outside the victim's house. He received probation and was ordered to attend anger-management classes and to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.
Six months later, he was back in court, pleading guilty to charges of drunk driving and marijuana possession.
Last year, Fillman pleaded guilty to burglary charges from a June 2001 break-in in which eight guns were stolen from a house in Richland Township. He was sentenced to serve 11 and a half to 23 months in the Bucks County Prison and ordered to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation, according to court records.
At the time of the burglary, Fillman had just been placed on two years' probation for a drug conviction. In January 2001, he had been arrested in Quakertown after police searched a car in which he had been riding and found marijuana, PCP and cocaine.
During the night of the attack on the cats, Toni Marina, the cats' owner, said her dog "started barking around 10:30" but she thought nothing of it. The next morning, she discovered one cat on the lawn, dead, thought it might have been the work of a fox, and left for an appointment in Doylestown. When she returned in the afternoon, she found the others. The worst of the wounded, the one that survived disembowelment, required six operations.
At 67, she is a retired marketing director of a pharmaceutical firm and a weekend manager at the Fonthill Museum in Doylestown. Besides the cats, which numbered 17 before the attack, she keeps three horses, two sheep and a dog on the 22 acres of her farm.
Marina spent $6000 on caring for the wounded cats. She acknowledged the abuse connection link by saying "It's just a dress rehearsal" for violence against humans. "It's how Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer started."
Case UpdatesThe second of two men convicted in a violent rampage that included the stabbing of 10 cats, killing two, was sentenced to prison.
Matthew Fillman apologized to the cats' 68-year-old owner, the investigating police officers and Bucks County Judge David Heckler before being sentenced Friday to 26 months to six years in state prison on charges of burglary and animal cruelty, to be followed by 10 years probation.
"I'm sorry for everything I've done and hope I can get the help I need," he said.
Minutes later, after Fillman was sentenced and as he being led away in handcuffs, he sounded less apologetic, telling reporters, "Yeah, I'm sorry I guess."
"I don't think he has the ability to feel remorse," said Toni Marina, the owner of the cats, after the sentencing. "He'll have a long time to think about what he's done."
Prosecutors said that Fillman, 21, of Coopersburg, and William Casey George, 21, of Richland Township, broke into a cat enclosure behind Marina's Richland Township home on Oct. 8, 2002, and stabbed 10 cats, two fatally. Another cat's stomach was ripped open and the animal underwent six operations to save its life.
Prosecutors also said the men threw a brick through the windshield of a police car and shot out a window at the police station the same evening.
Fillman was also found guilty of fleeing police and giving a false report to police.
George was sentenced in August to 26 months to six years in state prison, plus five years of probation after he is released from prison.
Source: NEPA News | | Update posted on Apr 1, 2004 - 8:09AM |
The two men will be tried in Bucks County on May 13
More info: Pillyburbs.com | | Update posted on Apr 28, 2003 - 10:01AM |
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