In June 2018, Trevor Moncrief of Quincy, Illinois, filmed himself throwing his wife’s cat into a wall and then sent her the video. The poor cat suffered injuries so grave from Moncrief’s abuse, it had to be euthanized. After his wife showed the footage to police, Moncrief was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and booked into the Adams County Jail.
Pleading guilty, Moncrief served 139 days in the jail and posted a $2,500 bail that saw him back on the streets. The sentencing hearing did not come to court until three years later, and in that time, the defendant says he’s changed his life since committing the horrific act. But the prosecutor on this case argued for the full six years of incarceration such charges allow as he says the evidence in this case revealed a “premeditated act” of cruelty that was one of the worst he’d ever seen.
Claiming Change Since The Horrific Act
Pushing for maximum sentencing, Josh Jones, the lead trial attorney for the Adams County state’s attorney’s office, showed Judge Bob Adrian two videos. One was the video of Moncrief throwing the cat against the wall, in which he could be heard saying the cat was going to “drown in its own blood.”
The second video, taken by a Quincy police officer, showed the state of the abused cat after the attack. The feline suffered injuries so devastating, it had to be euthanized.
Explaining that he was trying to be a better person, Moncrief said watching the videos was “embarrassing,” and he was no longer the man in the footage. He testified to having a steady job and helping raise his children. His mother said Moncrief had been attending church and that he was no longer the troubled person he was once was. His stepdad testified, “He’s a good man.”
Still An Act of Premeditation
But Jones explained the heinous act against Moncrief’s ex-wife’s cat was done with premeditation, and regardless of the bad things his wife did, the cat did not deserve such a terrible fate.
“I’ve seen a lot of stuff that I don’t want to bring home,” Jones said, according to Muddy River News. “I see a lot of stuff that I don’t share with people. They affect you for a long time. The videos the court saw are those types of things. To see a person do what the defendant did to that kitten, to throw it hard enough against the wall where you saw it bounce off the wall, and to see the ramifications of the sound. The visual of it is something that any person who watches it is going to be troubled by for a long time.”
And no matter what changes Moncrief made in his life since taking an innocent feline life, the crime still happened. And the premeditation behind the act led Jones to push for the maximum sentence of six years in jail.
Judge Hands Down Prison Time for Cat Killer
Judge Adrian concurred the crime deserved punishment no matter how much Moncrief has changed in the years since the cat’s murder.
As he handed down a four-year sentence of incarceration in the Illinois Department of Corrections, Adrian agreed Moncrief had made progress in life, but “regardless of all the good things you’ve done here with your past record, you deserve punishment. I’m not saying this is going to help you, because it’s not. I hope it doesn’t discourage you.”
Moncrief was handcuffed by bailiffs and led from the courtroom, thanking his parents as he went.
H/T: www.whig.com