Animal Authorized & Historical Middle
Defendant was charged and found guilty of first-degree animal cruelty with a domestic violence designation and in addition two sentencing aggravators. On appeal, the Court of Appeals vacated the home violence designation and the influence on others sentence aggravator. On attraction right here, the Supreme Court found that animal cruelty might be designated a felony offense of domestic violence. The statute defining domestic violence has a non-exhaustive list of what crimes can constitute domestic violence. While animal cruelty is not listed, the court found that testament of defendant’s prior controlling conduct coupled with research exhibiting how abusers use violence towards their victims’ pets to control and terrorize victims was enough. As to the sentencing aggravator, the court discovered that defendant’s actions had a harmful and foreseeable impact on the witnesses who noticed the animal cruelty.
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