By RYAN MYERS, The Beaumont Enterprise
Updated 04/28/2008 11:20:01 PM CDT

A Beaumont man scheduled for sentencing Monday after pleading no contest to his role in the 2005 beating death of a cat instead will go to trial next month.

Lee Randall French, 20, was set to be sentenced Monday after entering his plea to felony animal cruelty charges last month.

But in Monday's hearing, 252nd state District Court Judge Layne Walker rejected the plea, noting that after entering his plea, French told county probation investigators he had no involvement in the crime.

Because of the conflicting accounts from French, Walker said he would set the case for trial.

Prosecutors had recommended French receive probation after he pleaded no contest in March. But if convicted in trial, French will face the full range of punishment from probation to two years in jail.

Read the entire article HERE [1].