News
Year in review: Cat killer gets one year in jail
Tony Holt
Published: December 27, 2012
BROOKSVILLE - A woman convicted of cruelty to a cat made Hernando Today's eighth biggest story of 2012.Published: December 27, 2012
On the morning of Aug. 2, Circuit Judge Daniel Merritt Jr. told people gathered in a packed courtroom he prefers not to preach to or lecture a defendant before doling out a sentence.
But Merritt added that he was about to make an exception.
Merritt had a lot to say to Wilana Frazier, who in July, was convicted on two counts of animal cruelty and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after fatally beating two kittens with a baseball bat and encouraging one of her young sons to take part in the abuse.
Before her sentenced was announced, Frazier, 25, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, took her place next to her attorney and faced the judge.
Frazier was pregnant with her fifth child. Her attorney, Todd Hopson, said due to her lack of a criminal record, she should be released from jail and be required to serve probation — in large part to spare taxpayers from bearing the cost of her prenatal care.
"Give me another chance, please, I am not a bad person," Frazier said to the judge. "I can do it. I just want to go back home, be with my kids and raise them the right way."
She was sentenced to one year in jail and was required to pay restitution and court costs. Included in her restitution was $867 to a local pet shelter that treated one of the two kittens, which eventually was euthanized due to the extensive brain injuries caused by the beatings.
The other kitten was dead and lying in a trash can by the time an animal services officer responded the afternoon of June 10, 2011, to Hill 'n Dale Community Park.
Witnesses, most of them children, told authorities they saw Frazier and two of her sons beat, torture and kill the stray kittens, which were about 6 weeks old. For involving her own children in the animal abuse, Frazier was charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, but jurors acquitted her on one of the charges.
The trial lasted two days and Frazier was convicted July 12.
Merritt said Frazier posed no evident danger to society.
"While Ms. Frazier may be an obvious danger to cats, cats are not members of the public, much to the chagrin of some," the judge said.
He said the Legislature — and most of society — seems to weigh differently harming a person versus harming an animal.
"In my view, rightfully so," Merritt told the court.