Case Snapshot
Case ID: 4314
Classification: Beating, Drowning
Animal: cat
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Monday, Jan 4, 1999

County: Caddo

Disposition: Alleged

Alleged:
» Jason Harmer - Convicted
» Harold Scott Collins
» Thomas Emmett Tunnell

Jason Harmer, 17, has been convicted of misdemeanor animal cruelty for his role in torturing, drowning, beheading and eating a neighborhood cat.

Harmer received the maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $500 fine.

He was on trial earlier this week on a felony charge, aggravated cruelty to animals, which could have netted him 10 years in prison. The jury found him guilty Tuesday of the lesser offense.

Harmer told jurors that he only drowned the cat, Tabby, in a toilet on Jan 4 as an act of mercy after it was severely beaten by co-defendancts Harold Scott Collins, 29, and Thomas Emmett Tunnell, 43.

Collins and Tunnel face separate trials later this year.

Harmer said he didn't call the police because he didn't think it was a crime.

When Harmer and a female companion returned two hours later to the apartment where they stayed, they found food on the stove. He testified he did not know he was eating the dead cat until much later.

Joy Garland, testified she discovered the cat's frozen head in a freezer while visiting the home a day after the cat was killed. Garland was so upset she ran out of the home with the cat's skull in a plastic bag and buried it in a park.

References

  • The Associated Press - July 16, 1999


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