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Case ID: 12323

Classification: Mutilation/Torture

Animal: cat

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Drugs or alcohol involved

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Cats trapped, tortured, fed to suspect's dog
Dacula, GA (US)

Incident Date: Monday, Sep 10, 2007
County: Gwinnett

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Tye Richard Hilmo

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

When Mark Samson returned from a business trip and discovered one of his kittens missing, he didn't give it much thought. The cat often wandered off, Samson said, trailing after passing strangers who paused to pet it.

Then two weeks went by without Samson's family seeing so much as a whisker. On September 10, 2007, they learned what had become of their beloved pet. A sheriff's deputy said that their kitten's mutilated remains had been found on a neighbor's property along with those of another cat. Then it got worse.

Investigators say Tye Hilmo, 21, of Dacula trapped neighborhood kittens, hurt them and gave them to his pit bull to kill.

"That cat was special," Samson said. ... [My wife] raised it, fed it, got its shots."

Sheriff's deputies charged Hilmo with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony that carries a penalty of one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. He's been in the Gwinnett County Jail, with no bond allowed, since deputies searched his home Sept. 10, 2007. They found two pounds of marijuana, several firearms and two cat carcasses in the yard, said Stacey Bourbonnais, Gwinnett County sheriff's spokeswoman.
Hilmo's cellphone contained an image of a dog chewing a kitten above a caption that reads, "Good dog," Bourbonnais said.

"It's indescribable and sick that people would do this ... to and with animals," she said.

Deputies initially charged Hilmo with several offenses related to guns and drugs. They added aggravated cruelty to animals, but some neighbors were skeptical. "He drinks and he's loud; there's no question about that," said Tim Johnson, 31, a neighbor. Yet he said Hilmo loved animals. He said he found the charges "really hard to believe." Samson and stepdaughter Ashley McIlvainey, 18, said they aren't sure Hilmo is to blame. "Tye is a really sweet person. He's like my brother," McIlvainey said. "I honestly don't think he did it."

Case Updates

Sheriff Butch Conway has been asked to re-investigate lurid charges of animal cruelty against accused kitten killer Tye Richard Hilmo.

Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter made the request and has raised questions about some of the evidence against Hilmo, 22, of Dacula, who was arrested on Sept. 10 on a charge of aggravated animal cruelty, along with weapons and drug charges.

Right now evidence of animal cruelty isn't strong enough to more forward on that charge, Porter said.

Acting on a tip about suspected dog fighting, a Sheriff's animal cruelty task force went to Hilmo's house on Drowning Creek Road and found two cat carcasses on the property as well as two pounds of marijuana, authorities said.

Also seized was a sawed-off shotgun and several other weapons. Investigators believe as many as 15 people were at a party at Hilmo's house when Hilmo injured a kitten, then threw it to his pit bull to kill, Porter said.

Hilmo's cell phone contained a particularly graphic image - a dog with what appeared to be a mauled kitten. A caption on the photo read, "Good Dog, " said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Stacey Bourbonnais.

But that image has become problematic, Porter said. Five months after Hilmo's arrest, it isn't clear whether the image was date-stamped, he said. That's important for prosecutors - if the image is too old then it might not be the kitten found on Hilmo's property in September. Investigators haven't yet uploaded the image from Hilmo's Nextel phone to a computer for examination, he said.

Porter isn't even certain right now if the animal with the dog in the picture is a kitten. Necropsy results on the dead kittens can't conclusively prove that Hilmo's dog killed them, or that either cat is in the cell phone image, Porter said.

Calls for comment to Hilmo's attorney David Whitman were not returned. His father, Tim Hilmo, asserted in an interview shortly after the arrest that the picture on his son's cell phone is just a harmless photo of the dog gnawing on a stuffed animal.

Hilmo is still custody at the county jail in Lawrenceville.

Investigators have only spoken to two of witnesses at the party, Porter said. And those two have given conflicting accounts of what happened, he said.

"We are aware that there are some witnesses who need to be interviewed in the case against Mr. Hilmo and that is being handled," Bourbonnais said. "Some information has already been pulled from the cell phone and some additional information the District Attorney's Office needs is being gathered. Our investigators are working with the D.A.'s investigators on that. We are doing everything possible to get them what they need because we want a successful prosecution just like they do."

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution - Feb 8, 2008
Update posted on Feb 10, 2008 - 6:20PM

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Neighbors had wondered about Tye Hilmo and his tan-colored house on Drowning Creek Road in Dacula for years.

There was talk of loud boozy parties. And whispers of drugs. But what Gwinnett County Sheriff's deputies say they found at the home has astonished neighbors and even Hilmo's own father.

Gwinnett Sheriff's deputies say the 21-year-old Hilmo took at least two kittens, injured them and then fed them to his pitbull, Jack.

"Everybody knew Tye's house was a party house," said Carol Lunsford, who lives next door, "And there were so many cars in and out of here .... But the kittens thing scares me. It makes you wonder what else a person can do."

Hilmo was arrested Sept. 10 after deputies received a tip about possible animal cruelty. Two cat carcasses were found on the property as well as two pounds of marijuana, authorities said. Deputies seized a photo from Hilmo's cellphone appearing to show a dog chewing a kitten above a caption that reads, "Good Dog."

"I don't believe it," Veronica Johnson said. "He didn't seem to be that type of person."

Gwinnett authorities say Hilmo was arrested seven times before. Those charges ranged from theft to battery. Law enforcement authorities didn't know the status of those charges, but his father, Tim Hilmo, said most involved misdemeanors and most had been dismissed.

Tim Hilmo said he had to move out the house because of his own conviction in 1998 for child molestation. He served two years in prison and then moved into the Dacula home with his son. Tim Hilmo moved out last year because a change in state law forbids people on the sexual offender registry from living within 1,000 feet of a church.

Tim Hilmo said he has been in constant conversation with his son and he knows his son did not steal and kill kittens.

"If I thought Tye did it, I would be wondering why like everybody else and wondering what he could do next," Tim Hilmo said. "But Tye did not do this. He is an animal lover."

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution - Sept 22, 2007
Update posted on Oct 7, 2007 - 3:51AM

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Cats trapped, tortured, fed to suspect's dogDacula, GA (US)

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Cats trapped, tortured, fed to suspect's dog
Dacula, GA (US)