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Case #3873 Rating: 4.8 out of 5
Cat beaten with shovel
Beaumont, TX (US)Incident Date: Monday, Jan 17, 2005
County: Jefferson
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Lee Randall French
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
The Jefferson County grand jury has indicted a Beaumont teenager on charges of cruelty to animals. 17 year old Lee Randall French is accused of hitting and killing a cat with a shovel inside a drainage ditch off Lexington, near Dowlen, in Beaumont. The indictment alleges it happened on January 17, when Beaumont students were out of school for MLK Day.
According to a probable cause affidavit, witnesses who live near the ditch called police to report that French and two other boys mutilated the cat.
The affidavit also states that one of the neighbors photographed the three in the act. The cat belonged to Dennis Vail.
He says it's disturbing that someone could do this to his pet.
"It's hard to imagine, isn't it," Vail told KFDM News. "They could have no possible reason but the thrill of it. In fact, the witness, our neighbor across the ditch who saw them, said that they yelled and cheered while they were beating the cat with a shovel."
French's attorney, Raquel Galle, says the cat was dead when the boys found it, and there has been misinformation about the case.
Case UpdatesLee Randall French Jr., 20, was ordered Monday to complete one year of deferred adjudication probation for his part in the January 2005 beating of a cat.
French, who has maintained the cat was dead when he and two friends beat it with shovels in a Beaumont drainage ditch, had pleaded no contest to felony animal cruelty charges.
On Monday, Judge Layne Walker of the 252nd District Court found French guilty of the lesser-included misdemeanor offense of criminal mischief. Walker said he did not believe enough evidence had been preserved to convict French of the felony animal cruelty offense.
Citing arguments advanced by French's defense attorney, Walker said without the cat's body, French's claim of beating the cat after it was dead could not be refuted beyond a reasonable doubt.
"(T)he most crucial piece of evidence was destroyed," the judge said.
Jefferson County prosecutor Ann Manes had recommended Walker find French guilty of the felony offense and sentence him to probation following a period of jail time.
In a brief hearing Monday, Manes reminded Walker of sworn statements from witnesses who claimed to have seen the beating in a concrete ditch near Phelan Boulevard and Dowlen Road on Jan. 17, 2005.
The witnesses, 42-year-old Darrell Minton and 53-year-old Karen Priest, who lived in the area, said the animal was alive when they watched the beating from behind a backyard fence, according to their statements.
Gwen Vail, who owned the cat, said she was disappointed with French's sentence.
"I think he should have served some time," Vail said, failing to fight back tears as she spoke to the media in a courthouse hallway after the hearing.
"I think it's really sad and I think there's a good chance he will continue with this kind of behavior," Vail said.
The night of the beating, when Beaumont police first talked with the teens, their parents requested that the animal's body be preserved so a necropsy could be performed to determine what caused the cat's death. A necropsy is an autopsy performed on an animal.
The following day, a Beaumont defense attorney hired by the teens' parents reiterated the request to Beaumont police, according her testimony in a previous hearing. Police eventually told the lawyer that Beaumont Animal Control had destroyed the cat.
The two other teens, prosecuted as juveniles, admitted their roles in the beating and completed probation terms, according to statements in court from Manes and French's attorney, Tom Roebuck.
Before sentencing French, Walker made clear he found no fault in how the district attorney's office handled French's case.
"If they had been involved earlier in the investigation, all of the questions would have been answered," the judge said.
After French's case was investigated, the Beaumont Police Department revamped its handling of animal cruelty cases.
The department designated two detectives responsible for handling the cases and provided them with training in investigating the crimes - including evidence preservation.
"I think what you did was incredibly stupid," Walker said to French. "Even if the cat was dead, what you did was wrong." | Source: Beaumont Enterprise - July 14, 208
Update posted on Jul 15, 2008 - 11:06PM |
A man who was expected to receive probation for killing a cat, instead will face the possibility of up to two years in state jail. 20 year old Lee Randall French, Junior pleaded no contest to the charge.
French was 17 when police say he and two juveniles beat a cat with a shovel and killed it in a drainage ditch in West Beaumont.
A judge threw out the plea agreement and decided French will go to trial.
What happened in a drainage ditch three years ago, didn't go unnoticed.
"I looked through the fence and I could see one of the guys with a shovel. He was still beating with all his might on the cat," says Darrell Minton, who witnessed the beating.
Darrell Minton says his daughter, who was 9 at the time, told him about screams she thought were from a small child.
"She still talks about it from time to time and it still bothers her that it happened," says Minton.
He went outside and says he saw the attack in a drainage ditch near Lexington and Phelan.
Minton says he'll never forget the cat's screams as the three teens took turns beating the animal.
And he felt like he had to do something.
"I had just bought my wife a new camera with a 10 power zoom, so I limped home and got the camera and took the pictures," says Minton.
"It was a heinous act of cruelty and needs to be punished," says Cindy Meyers with the Humane Society of Southeast Texas.
Lee Randall French, Junior was scheduled to be sentenced Monday. Cindy Meyers and others with the Humane Society of Southeast Texas showed up to hear the judge's decision.
French could have received probation, but Judge Layne Walker threw out the plea agreement, after Walker said French told the probation department he didn't do it.
"This was a surprise and we're very excited it's going to trial," says Meyers.
And while Minton says he's happy the case is going to trial, he also feels bad for French.
"I hate to see this, but at the same time, I don't want to see someone beat a cat to death with a shovel again," says Minton.
French left the courthouse with his family and attorney, preparing to go to trial next month.
The jury trial is set for May 12th in Judge Walker's courtroom. French's mother told us the cat was already dead when her son and the other boys saw it. The two juveniles involved in the beating have finished serving probation. | Source: KFDM - April 28, 2008
Update posted on Apr 28, 2008 - 11:34PM |
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