A South Charleston man who admitted that he mutilated a cat and injured two others will spend 18 months, the maximum sentence, in jail.
Wayne Nelson Mallory, 37, of Thomas Avenue in South Charleston, was charged with three misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty.
Mallory pleaded guilty before Kanawha Magistrate Kim Aaron Thursday afternoon.
He had appeared in court for a bond reduction hearing Wednesday. Chelsea Staley, executive director for the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association, said bond was increased from $15,000 cash to $150,000 surety, instead.
"I think he realized at that point that he was going to face a sentence and he may as well begin it now," Staley said.
On Dec. 5, neighbors called 911, and a Kanawha County sheriff's deputy saw a dead cat in the front yard of Mallory's home. The deputy made a referral to a humane officer, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.
On the following day, a neighbor brought three cats to the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association. One was unharmed. One had been stabbed in the head and one had "injuries consistent with a person with surgical precision," according to the complaint.
The neighbor told them her husband had seen Mallory mutilate and assault cats.
Two humane officers went to the home and found a mutilated cat on Mallory's porch. After obtaining a search warrant, humane officers and sheriff's deputies searched the property on Tuesday night and found various cat body parts from a disemboweled cat.
In a written statement, a neighbor said he saw Mallory throwing cats onto the ground, stomping on a cat, and pacing around the yard. After the police left Dec. 5, they saw him on his front porch "holding something up in the air with his left hand stabbing and ripping it with the knife, as if it was a piece of material or a T-shirt," according to the complaint.
Jessie Shafer, spokeswoman for the humane association, has said the dead cat seen Dec. 5 and the mutilated cat found Dec. 6 were the same cat.
The humane association's staff veterinarian, Jamie Totten, found that the injuries were caused by a human, according to the complaint.
The Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association has said in a statement that the cats were "stabbed, stomped and/or skinned." Four cats were seized, three living and one dead.
Shafer has said the two injured, living cats were being cared for by KCHA's medical team and were expected to make full recoveries.
Mallory will also have to pay $480 in court costs. He is not permitted to own any animals for five years.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.