On Tuesday, December 3, a Houston man convicted of stomping his ex-girlfriend’s cat to death was sentenced to six years in prison.
On January 25, Javontae Isaiah Thrasher, 22, and his girlfriend were in the midst of a breakup when she took her tabby cat in her arms and tried to flee. According to a witness, Thrasher hit the kitten out of her arms onto the ground, kicked the poor creature, and stomped on the little one six or seven times before the tiny animal went lifeless. Thrasher then disposed of the cat in a dumpster.
Thrasher was arrested and faced charges of cruelty to animals, a third-degree felony. He pleaded guilty in September.
This was not Thrasher’s first instance of cruelty. In 2016, he faced assault charges for attacking his great-grandmother. This former charge seemed to inform Judge Nikita V. Hamon’s sentence.
Assistant District Attorney and Animal Cruelty Section Chief of Harris County Jessica Milligan said, “This is a case that shows the direct link between animal abuse and violence toward other people.
“Someone who can hurt his own great-grandmother, then kill a cat in a domestic dispute is someone who is capable of violent behavior against people, including children, in the future. We take that seriously, and we are grateful the judge took this seriously as well.”
Too often animal abusers and killers walk free with no or minimal punishment. We thank the judge for taking a strong stand against animal abuse and for sending the message through this sentence that violence against animals will not be tolerated.
