Cody Michael Tyler (credit: Livingston County)
BRIGHTON, Mich. (WWJ/AP) – A Michigan man who pleaded guilty to animal cruelty in the stomping death of six kittens has been sentenced to a year in jail.
Cody Michael Tyler told Livingston County Judge Michael P. Hatty Thursday that he feels “horrible” for his actions.
“I feel guilty for what I did every day,” Tyler told the judge, according to a report by the Livingston Daily Press & Argus. “The guards at the jail treat me like garbage. … I did something horrible. I wasn’t thinking honestly.”
Tyler faced possible prison time, but Judge Hatty sentenced the 21-year-old Brighton Township man to jail and probation for his guilty plea to three counts of animal cruelty causing death.
He was given credit for 162 days already served in jail.
Livingston County Animal Control officers responded Sept. 20 after a 911 caller reported that the kittens had been killed at a home near U.S. 23 and south of M-59 in Brighton Township.
Defense attorney Heather Nalley says Tyler believed a woman had hurt his young daughter and thought she loved the animals more than her children.
Assistant Prosecutor Angela Del Vero said the act was “a consummate episode of domestic violence” whereby the defendant killed the kittens to “extract the most pain out of his significant other.”
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