Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Bozeman, MT: Bozeman man accused of killing two kittens, partner assault

23-year-old man was arrested Saturday in connection with killing two kittens during an argument with a woman at a Bozeman home.

Police charged Royce Daniel Turner with two counts of cruelty to animals, partner-family-member assault, obstructing a police officer, resisting arrest and criminal mischief — all misdemeanors.

According to the charging document:

Three Bozeman police officers responded to an East Cleveland Street home around 1:30 a.m. after a woman called saying she and a man had been arguing. During the altercation, the man grabbed one of the woman’s kittens and “tried to snap its neck.”

He then “threw the kitten on the floor causing the kitten to bounce off of the floor.” The woman began to “cry profusely,” causing the man to become “more and more angry,” she told officers.

She said she was “scared that he would hurt” her.

Turner answered the door when police arrived and refused to cooperate with them.

“I asked the defendant to come outside and speak with me,” officer Mark Van Slyke wrote in the document. “The defendant squared up and tightly gripped his glass beer bottle.”

When asked again, Turner stated, “I will stay right here,” and he blew cigarette smoke in the officer’s face.

Officers forcefully “escorted him outside” and a struggle ensued. Turner was eventually handcuffed and placed under arrest.

Police found two dead 1-month-old kittens “that were savagely beaten and thrown behind” the couple’s fence.

Officers also said Turner knocked the woman’s cellphone out of her hands, breaking it.

Turner was ordered held in the Gallatin County jail on $2,910 bond

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