An 18 year old who egged on a younger teen to commit an act of premeditated animal abuse and then posted a video of the assault online was spared jail time through a plea agreement on Monday.
18 year old Martinsburg, Vest Virginia resident Naim Robert Carter plead guilty on Monday in an animal cruelty case stemming from an incident of gratuitous cruelty and violence that took place last summer.
On July 28, 2012, Deputy C.S. Merson of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department spoke with a woman and her daughter who reported having seen a disturbing video posted on the internet that showed a cat being kicked off a porch. Deputy Merson took statements and viewed the video, titled ‘Kick the Cat’.
Carter, who encouraged the act and shot the video, the 14 year old who violently kicked the cat from the porch, and the location were all identifiable from the footage.
The video shows the 14 year old walking around talking about how he is going to kick a cat, as he is egged on by Carter, who is heard but not seen. After the cat is kicked from the porch in a manner thought to have caused it serious harm, the two laugh about the incident.
After posting the abuse video, Carter uploaded a followup video in which he responds to criticism by saying “I didn’t kick the cat, but, (expletive), I’ll stomp an (expletive) cat out and there ain’t (expletive) y’all can do about it.”
Facing Berkeley County Magistrate Sandra Miller, Carter plead guilty in a deal that downgraded the original felony animal cruelty charge to a misdemeanor. He was given a six month jail sentence that was suspended and two years on probation, along with three hundred hours of community service. He also has to pay court and probation costs.
The court is not releasing any information on whether the 14 year old was charged for his role in the incident.
More details from the video and on the investigation can be found at The Journal, the source with the most informed coverage of the case.
