Cat-shooting trial could end today
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GALVESTON — The trial of an island bird lover could end today with closing arguments this morning in his animal-cruelty case.
Jim
Stevenson, 54, faces the charge for shooting a cat in November 2006
near the western tip of the island. Stevenson is president of the
Galveston Ornithological Society.
At issue in the case is whether the cat was a pet, belonging to a San Luis Pass toll-bridge worker.
The worker had claimed he had been feeding and caring for the cat and that he had considered the animal his.
However, defense attorney Tad A. Nelson has said the animal was feral and had no owner.
The
Texas Penal Code has 10 definitions for cruelty to animals. The one
that applies to Stevenson’s case is anyone who seriously injures an
animal “belonging to another without legal authority or the owner’s
effective consent.”
If jurors find the cat was feral, or wild,
then it had no owner and that law did not apply to Stevenson’s actions.
However, if they find the cat was the bridge worker’s pet, the charge
could carry a jail term of 180 days to two years, as well as a fine of
up to $10,000.
While Stevenson did not testify on his own behalf
during the trial, jurors did hear from the defendant. Prosecutors Paige
Santell and Rebecca Klaren played Stevenson’s taped grand-jury
testimony, in which he said he never would have shot the cat had he
known it to be someone’s pet.
Jurors also heard prosecutor Bill
Reed on the tape. Reed questioned Stevenson’s apparent suggestion that
the bridge worker had planted food and toys under the bridge to give
the impression the cat was a pet. Reed also challenged Stevenson’s
credibility, saying he did not see the food. Nelson had said in opening
statements that geotubes placed to stem beach erosion had blocked the
food from Stevenson’s view.
While Reed handled the prosecution
of the case only as far as the grand jury, he did play a role in the
trial as a witness called to authenticate the tape of Stevenson’s
testimony.
The cross-examination between him and Nelson was
frequently contentious, with Nelson asking Reed about his questioning
process and about paperwork Stevenson had provided prosecutors about
feral cats. The paperwork appeared to have vanished, Nelson said.
Police
officer John Bertolino was on his way to the San Luis Pass, where a
caller had reported hearing shots fired, when he stopped a van with a
Galveston Ornithological Society logo on its side near 15 Mile Road.
Bertolino found a. 22-caliber rifle in the van.
One of the
toll-bridge workers was following the van and later told police the
van’s occupant had shot a cat, which suffered a severed spine. The cat
died while Bertolino was taking it to a veterinarian.
Stevenson discussed the incident after his release. His account appeared on the Texbirds online message board.
He
wrote that, the night before his arrest, he saw a cat “creeping up on
three snowy and two piping plovers and several sanderlings.”
