St. Paul man who 'accidentally' threw kitten against wall is charged
Playing with the kitten made her happy. But it apparently made her boyfriend angry.
Scott Michael Turner is accused of throwing the kitten, named Nilla, against a wall in a St. Paul apartment during an argument with his pregnant girlfriend. The 23-week-old kitten died.
"I guess he thought she was paying more attention to the cat than to him," said Lisa Lewis, the neighbor who owned the cat.
She said that when she confronted Turner, whom prosecutors charged with felony animal cruelty Tuesday, he said: "She made me mad, and I accidentally threw it against the wall."
The cat had a fractured skull and a swollen brain, and its left eye had popped out of its socket, Lewis said. Nilla had to be euthanized.
"You don't do that accidentally with that much force," Lewis said.
Turner's 25-year-old girlfriend — who police said is six months pregnant with his child — said Lewis let her watch Nilla occasionally "because it made her happy," the complaint said.
"The strategic use of this animal to get at his girlfriend is pathological," Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said. "A 23-week-old kitten — what could be sweeter, and (what could) frighten his girlfriend more than abusing that innocent kitten? A crime like this, an act like this, against a pet, basically screams, 'I could do this to you.' "
Police were called at 8:37 p.m. Monday, after Turner's girlfriend and Turner got into an argument at their apartment at 1034 Suburban Ave.,
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said Peter Panos, St. Paul police spokesman. The woman, who wasn't identified in the complaint, wasn't injured.
Turner, 29, had been drinking, Panos said. When Turner and his girlfriend starting arguing, he told her to take the kitten back to the neighbor's apartment, Panos said. The woman refused and went into the kitchen. She then heard a loud thud, Panos said.
The woman looked around the corner and saw the kitten lying motionless on the floor, next to the wall, Panos said. Turner left the apartment, and the woman called police.
Lewis said she found her cat in Turner's apartment.
"She's laying there, blood coming out of her mouth," she said. "She's laying there twitching."
Lewis said she got Nilla to keep her dog, a Pomeranian-poodle mix, company. She's now left with a $244 veterinary bill and a cat that had to be put to sleep, and "my dog's walking around depressed."
"It was totally unprovoked. What kind of animal does that?" she asked of Turner's behavior.
Officers later found Turner outside his mother's home in the 400 block of West Maryland Avenue. He resisted arrest, and police used a chemical agent to get him into custody, a police report said.
Turner, who is being held in the Ramsey County Jail, has convictions for drug possession, obstructing legal process and receiving stolen property. He declined a Pioneer Press interview request.
A summit on the link between animal and domestic abuse was held in St. Paul last year, and a coalition began meeting regularly on the subject in January, said Jane Hunt, program coordinator for Partners for Violence Prevention.
The St. Paul organization has been convening the meetings with representatives from St. Paul police, the Ramsey County attorney's office, the Humane Society of the United States, the Animal Humane Association and others.
"The whole area has really been getting a lot more attention," Hunt said. "People who work in battered women's shelters have known this for a long time. I used to work with children in shelters, and I'd hear the horror stories of how their pets were killed in front of them. It's an incredibly powerful tool to silence a woman or a child or to get them to do what they want."
St. Paul police now ask domestic violence victims whether pets are being abused in their homes, said Cmdr. Shari Gray, who heads the department's family violence unit. The coalition is working to get veterinarians to ask questions when they see an abused animal, to find out if there also may be human abuse, Gray said.
Okay people, what would you find as appropriate punishment for him?
