Pet goats and chicken attacked, 3 slaughtered
Houma, LA (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Jul 19, 2011
County: Terrebonne
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged:
» Joachim Joey Morvant
» Name Undisclosed 16-year-old male
Two teenage boys are accused of slaughtering a pair of pet goats with knives after a night of drinking.
Joachim Joey Morvant, 17, 179 Louise Lane, and a 16-year-old whose name is being withheld because of his age allegedly killed the goats last month using cane and buck knives.
Two other goats were stabbed but survived, and a chicken was killed, police said.
Both teens face five counts of animal cruelty, as well as a charge of theft of a flare gun, police said.
Christi Triche was at a doctor's appointment on July 19 when her 11-year-old daughter, Amber, called her, crying.
"The chicken is dead. Grace is dead," Amber Triche told her mom.
Grace, the goat Amber had found lying motionless on the ground, had been killed, Christi Triche said.
Banana, another goat owned by the family, had been stabbed three times but survived.
At Janis Molaison's home, a few hundred yards away, a goat named Iceman was killed and another named Murphy was injured.
Morvant and the 16-year-old had been drinking at a friend's camper on Bayou Blue Road prior to attacking the animals, police said.
Christi Triche said her children had raised Grace and Banana for the past three years for 4-H competitions. Participation in the national youth program, she said, taught the children responsibility.
Now, she said, "everything they have worked for has been taken away."
It wasn't immediately clear how the goats died, the family said, and they initially thought the animals had been shot.
Triche, 38, and Molaison, 48, reported the deaths to the Terrebonne Sheriff's Office on July 19.
The 16-year-old turned himself in last week, police said and Morvant was arrested Tuesday.
Stephen Martin, 18, 2431 Bayou Blue Road, and Dillon Gautreaux, 20, 831 Bayou Blue Road, are accused of drinking with Morvant and the 16-year-old in the camper. Each was ticketed for underage possession of alcoholic and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Neither is accused of harming the animals.
Triche and Molaison both say the surviving animals appear traumatized.
Banana, for example, ran from Christi's husband, Shane, when he approached Wednesday night.
Shane said the animals used to behave more like dogs, running up to people in search of attention.
Molaison has three surviving goats, 19 chickens, three rabbits and two dogs. She said she loves animals.
"People would say 'it's just a goat,'" Molaison said. "But it was my goat. It's more personable to kill them this way though, the savageness."
Efforts to reach the families of Morvant, Martin and the 16-year-old were unsuccessful Wednesday.
If convicted, Morvant faces more than 50 years in prison. He remained in the Terrebonne Parish jail this morning in lieu of a $25,000 bond. His arraignment date is set for September 22, 2011.
The 16-year-old was turned over to juvenile authorities. References |
