Tarzan the cat, at the time he was recovering from injuries at Bay Animal Hospital in Hampton Township.
BAY CITY, MICHIGAN — A Bay City teen whose spiking of a kitten was all captured on a police camera is spending nearly the next eight months in jail for violating his probation.
According to court documents, 19-year-old Trent W. McLeod on April 1 assaulted a woman with whom he was in a romantic relationship while in Saginaw’s city limits. That act violated his sentence of three years of probation, imposed by former Bay County Judge Kenneth W. Schmidt sentenced him to three years of on Aug. 10.
As the result, Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill Monday, May 23, sentenced McLeod to one year in jail with credit for 138 days already served, leaving a balance of 227 days (or seven and a half months) for the young man to spend behind bars. The first 90 days after his release, he is to be monitored by an electronic tether.
Gill also continued McLeod’s probation term, which ends Aug. 10, 2018, and ordered him to participate in and complete an anger-management course.
McLeod in May 2015 pleaded no contest to single counts of torturing or killing an animal and malicious destruction of a public building between $1,000 and $20,000. A no contest plea is not an official admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
Police on May 5, 2015, responded to an apartment building in the 1400 block of McKinley Avenue on Bay City’s East Side after receiving some calls from people claiming McLeod, a resident, was on a violent tear. After officers arrived, McLeod left his residence with a kitten named Tarzan in his hand, then raised the feline above his head and threw the kitten to the ground.
The incident was entirely captured on an officer’s body-worn camera. Before officers’ arrival, McLeod had assaulted a building maintenance man, court records indicate.
Tarzan suffered several bone fractures, for which he was later treated at Bay Animal Hospital, 637 W. Center Road in Hampton Township. He was later adopted by a family in the area.
At McLeod’s 2015 sentencing, defense attorney Bruce K. Mannikko stated his client was highly intoxicated at the time of his crimes.
“I do take full responsibility,” McLeod said to Judge Schmdit at his sentencing. “I was careless with my alcohol and drug use and I regret it completely. The fact that I could hurt an innocent animal and cause others damage, I’m shocked. I have plans to sober up and attend outpatient treatment and self-help groups such as (Narcotics Anonymous) and try to work towards my diploma.”
Schmidt recited the litany of drugs McLeod has consumed during the course of his young life.
“Cocaine, morphine, heroin, codeine, LSD, crack cocaine, prescription drugs, and marijuana … plus alcohol,” the judge stated. “You’re not even supposed to drink, of course, and the other drugs are all illegal. You’re going to head down the path to prison if you don’t start getting treatment and stop taking drugs.”
