Gabriel Messer (pictured here) stabbed a cat while a laughing juvenile filmed, deputies said. (Mugshot: Knox County Detention Center)
Two people are accused of sadistically abusing a cat and more charges could be pending regarding other abused animals.
The adult defendant, Gabriel Messer, 20, is newly charged with cruelty to animals in the second degree and criminal mischief in the third degree. Deputies in Knox County, Kentucky, only identified the other suspect as a male juvenile.
According to the sheriff’s department, authorities received a call on Friday about a disturbing video posted to social media of two people hurting a cat.
Investigators identified one of them, Barbourville resident Messer, through his tattoos, deputies said. Law enforcement officers had arrested him on Tuesday for a count of criminal abuse in the second degree involving a juvenile in an unrelated case. He was still locked up.
“The deputies went to the Knox County Detention center and spoke with Messer confirming the tattoos were his,” deputies wrote. “Messer state that he stabbed the cat, but that it was the idea of the juvenile. He claimed he was going to kill the cat and wanted to ‘put it out of it’s misery.””
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies spoke to the juvenile at his home, and his story clashed with Messer’s; the minor blamed Messer for the incident.
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“It was determined that the juvenile was the individual filming and laughing in the video,” deputies wrote.
The boy was taken to the Breathitt County Juvenile Detention Center for torture of a dog or cat and criminal mischief in the first degree.
Messer remains at the Knox County Detention Center on a $5,500 cash bond, records show.
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“The owner of the animals did state it was hers seen in the video,” authorities wrote. “Additional charges are possible as the owner also stated she had other animals, one of which was a dog found stabbed in a similar manner behind her home in a creek.”
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