BEAUMONT, Texas — A 24-year-old Beaumont man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to the torture, killing of a cat.
In February, Decorius Mire pled guilty to animal crushing.
Animal crushing is defined as, “actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians, is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury.”
Mire was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone on Monday.
Mire and Donaldvan Williams, 28, of Beaumont, were arrested, charged, and federally indicted after a video of them torturing and killing a cat by setting it on fire, giving it drugs, and kicking it surfaced on social media, according to a Beaumont Police Department release.
Williams was arrested for his outstanding warrant on September 20, 2022. Mire was arrested eight days later in Port Arthur.
It happened on October 15, 2021 after Mire and Williams found a live cat in the parking lot of a Beaumont apartment complex. Officials believe Mire encouraged Williams to kick the cat.
Williams allegedly did, sending the cat about 15 to 20 feet into the air, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Texas release.
Mire filmed the cat's torture and death on his cell phone and posted the video to his social media accounts. The Beaumont Police Department later received a Crime Stopper’s tip with a video.
Mire faces up to seven years in federal prison at sentencing. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
The Beaumont Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the case.
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