Feline Torturer Pleads Guilty
By: Charlie De Mar
Updated: December 20, 2012
Mathew Jerome was in court today for a pretrial conference but it looks like this case won't even get to trial as Jerome pled guilty to all three counts he's facing.
"Today he admitted his guilt," said Attorney Colin Andrews.
Mathew Jerome pleaded guilty to two felony counts and one misdemeanor as
"I'm not surprised that they would take a plea of guilty," said Andrews
Attorney Colin Andrews says when the evidence is so strong against a defendant, it sometimes makes more sense to enter a plea agreement rather than stand trial.
"He will be found guilty on all three counts but will do time on 2 of them for 1 year and those sentences will run concurrent, meaning he will only spend one year in incarceration," said Andrews.
Andrews was expecting a much harsher punishment.
"I am just a little surprised that such a light sentence was there, the public outcry in this case has been pretty strong," said Andrews.
As part of the plea deal, two years of jail time were removed and Jerome will be eligible to serve his sentence on work release. Jerome will also serve one year of probation.
"The court will take all that information and they could merely rubber stamp this and say this is what its going to be and order the sentence or the sentence could change and they could add some provisions," said Andrews.
The court is currently reviewing the plea deal and will decide by Jan. 7 whether to accept it.
"We can't say for sure what will happen to him but as a general rule the courts don't deviate to much from pleas that they've already accepted and an individual pled guilty," said Andrews.
The terms of the plea deal say that Jerome will never be allowed to own or live in a house with an animal. If the plea is accepted, Jerome will be sentenced on Jan. 14.
