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Virginia Beach man sentenced to three years in prison for killing family cat

Posted at 3:54 PM, Aug 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-09 17:19:36-04

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A Virginia Beach man has been sentenced to three years in prison for killing his family’s cat.

Allen Curtiss Kinzey, 22. (Photo courtesy of the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office)

Allen Curtiss Kinzey, 22, plead guilty and was sentenced for Torture Cat Causing Death. Kinzey was sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections with two years suspended, leaving three years to serve. The sentence was above the Virginia State Sentencing Guidelines, which recommends a maximum sentence of six months in jail.

If this incident had gone to trial, the Commonwealth’s evidence would have proven that on October 26, 2016, Kinzey was in the garage of his Virginia Beach home with the family cat. A family member heard a disturbance in the garage and went to check on it, finding Kinzey choking the cat around the neck and blood coming from the cat’s mouth.

The female family member went back into the home to change clothes so she could take the cat to the veterinarian, but when she returned to the garage the cat was gone. Animal Control officers arrived at the home and found the deceased cat in the trash can. A necropsy revealed that the cat died from severe head trauma related to multiple blows to the head. Kinzey admitted to killing the cat.

Kinzey has prior convictions for Possession with Intent to Distribute – Accommodation, Shoplifting, Petit Larceny and Driving After Illegal Consumption of Alcohol.