Assistant District Attorney Paige Santell prosecuted the State v. Stevenson trial, which began on November 12, 2007. Mr. Stevenson did not testify. On November 16 the case was declared a mistrial after more than eight hours of deliberation by a jury of twelve, of whom eight voted to convict.

Alley Cat Allies interviewed Assistant District Attorney Paige Santell following the trial to get her insight into the case and to talk generally about the anti-cruelty law in the state of Texas. Click on the audio clips below to hear portions of that interview.

On April 18, 2007, a Texas grand jury indicted James Munn Stevenson of felony cruelty for "intentionally or knowingly” shooting and killing a cat with a .22-caliber rifle. John Newland, a tollbooth operator on the bridge where the crime took place, had been feeding and taking care of the cat who was shot.

Assistant District Attorney Paige Santell describes…

“Mr. Newland, through his actions, had developed what we believe was a greater right of possession of those cats than any other person off the street. He had fed them, watered them, provided shelter for them, provided toys for them, provided vet care for some of them. And through those actions, we believe that he had established himself as an owner, being that he had a greater right of possession to them than just someone off of the street.”

“Well, at the time that he committed the statute [sic], it was a violation of 42.09 of the Texas penal code, and that is, if you—a person commits an offense if the person intentionally or knowingly kills, seriously injures, or administers poison to an animal—other than cattle, horses, sheep, or swine—belonging to another, without legal authority or the owner’s effective consent. That’s how the statute was in place at the time.”

“…the ownership requirement needed to be eliminated. And the new legislative session did that and they specifically changed the statute to eliminate the ownership requirement and they divided animals into domestic and non-domestic. And feral cats became specifically protected in this new statute, and they actually addressed the feral cats.”

“Mr. Newland, God bless him, that’s his life; I mean, he loves these cats. And he has feelings and emotion for them. And that was very evident on the stand. He cried when even discussing this matter. He cried on the scene when the officers came. He was highly emotional because he has feelings invested here. And I think that this law helps people like John Newland because it protects the animals that they care so much about.”

“I think that the impact on that is going to be good because I think that they now, people that care for these animals know that they’re protected, that somebody just can’t pick them off, you know, randomly on the street. And I think them being protected is important to people that care for these animals.”

“I’m very, very, very proud of the work we did on this. And people have asked me, would I do this again, and you bet, because, I mean, I’m proud of the work we did. I think that, you know, all of us, including the prosecutors in Waco and some other animal cruelty cases, we played a part in getting that law developed and changed. And I think it’s important. And I am proud of what we’ve done here.”