The 17-year-old from Tarpon Springs faces an animal cruelty charge after he allegedly tossed the animal into the air above a concrete driveway.
By KELLY VIRELLA
Published October 10, 2003
TARPON SPRINGS - Police charged a 17-year-old with killing a cat Wednesday by throwing it 10 feet into the air, causing it to smash its head on a concrete driveway.
The incident took place at 1141 Elmendorf Trace, a home where the cat, an elderly calico called Mittens, had taken up residence three to four months before. The teenager was a friend of the family who was feeding the cat.
After talking to his parents Thursday, the suspect would not discuss what happened, but he told police that he grabbed the stray cat and threw it.
Police said the teen told them that he had thrown the cat because it had been soiling the house. But he wasn't alone at the house when the cat died, according to the family.
Also home was 20-year-old Zac Cross, a friend of the suspect's who was not charged. On Thursday, Cross said he accepts some responsibility for the cat's death.
"It was an accident," Cross said. "It's not like we set out to go out and kill a cat. We tossed it out and it didn't land on its feet."
Cross' sister, who was home when the cat died, said the teen "deserves to be arrested."
Nikki Cross, 16, said she was in the back yard when the boys opened the door and Zac slung the cat, which he was holding by its neck, against a fence. She said the teen who was charged did the same thing and, in both cases, the cat walked off.
Nikki then went inside and sat down. She did not see the cat thrown into the air again, but a few minutes later, her brother came in and said the suspect had broken Mittens' back and she was dying, she said. She found Mittens lying on the edge of the family's driveway, in the gutter, twitching with labored breathing.
Shocked, Nikki ran inside to contact her mother at work to tell her what had happened and ask if she should call police. Her mother replied thatshe would take care of it when she got home.
Then, through a window, she saw the suspect take Mittens to the middle of the road, she said.
Nikki went back outside to move the cat onto the sidewalk. Two boys on bikes rode by, and she told them what had happened. Those boys, she believes, went home and one of their parents called police.
"After I put her on the sidewalk, I started to cry," Nikki said. "She was dead."
The fall inflicted severe head trauma, causing the elderly cat's ears and one eye to hemorrhage, police say.
Deborah Cross, Nikki and Zac's mother said her son is partly responsible for Mittens' death.
"Zac was with him," she said. "He was much older. He could have stopped it."
Mittens showed up at the Crosses' house three or four months ago, Deborah Cross said. The family tried for three or four days to domesticate Mittens. It ate, but would run under the bed whenever anyone tried to pick it up. Mittens also never learned to use the litter box, which was a sore point with Zac, who was responsible for cleaning the house, according to his mother.
Authorities charged Richard Charles Jolly of Tarpon Springs with animal cruelty, a third-degree felony, and took him to the Pinellas County Juvenile Assessment Center Wednesday. Thursday afternoon he was back at home with his family.
