Bunnell, FL – A convicted felon gets 5 more years in prison for shooting and killing a puppy and then beating up his girlfriend.
Kevin J. McClenithan was sentenced on Tuesday in a Flagler County courtroom in those separate incidents, the first happening in May and the second in September.
McClenithan will have to spend at least 3 years in prison before he can be considered for early release, according to Spencer Hathaway, a spokesman for 7th Circuit State Attorney RJ Larizza.
“The defendant was adjudicated guilty to the charges of felon in possession of a firearm, cruelty to animals and simple battery,” Hathaway stated. “Upon release from prison, he will be placed on 2 years of probation.”
McClenithan will also have to avoid contact with his victim, get evaluated and treated by a counselor and obey a no-trespass order.
The 46-year-old was initially arrested May 1st for shooting a Labrador puppy that allegedly got loose from a nearby home and wandered onto his landlord’s State Road 100 property.
According to the arrest report, McClenithan told the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office that the dog tried to bite him and his landlord just before he killed it with a shotgun.
FCSO says McClenithan wasn’t supposed to have a weapon because of a prior burglary conviction and that no calls had been made to complain about that particular dog in the past.
It was nearly 5 months after McClenithan posted bail in that case when he was arrested again, this time for choking his live-in girlfriend and threatening to set fire to her home.
McClenithan’s bail was revoked following that arrest and he’s been in Flagler County Jail ever since.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of threatening to harm a law enforcement officer against McClenithan after he allegedly threatened to beat up the deputy who arrested him in the September incident.
Kevin J. McClenithan (mugshot courtesy FCJ)
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.