Sentenced: Stephen Nichols Cook Avenged His Cat's Death By Shooting Neighbor's 2 Dogs

[Sugar Cookie]

Authorities say a Virginia man whose cat was killed by two Labrador retrievers pursued their owner and fatally shot the dogs.

The Roanoke Times reports 68-year-old Stephen Nichols Cook was convicted Tuesday of two misdemeanor charges in connection with the November incident and a judge sent felony charges against Cook to a grand jury. Cook immediately appealed the misdemeanor convictions.

Tuesday's hearing featured testimony from several witnesses, who described how Cook and nearby property owner Arthur Hamrick had long been at odds, fueled by encounters between Cook's cats and Hamrick's dogs.

Cook's attorney, Richard Davis, said Cook was sorry the dogs had been killed and that his actions should be seen in the context of grief.

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/nat...cle_5d95778f-7f70-5530-bf4f-38cef3709548.html

 

[Stormcloud]

Authorities say a Virginia man whose cat was killed by two Labrador retrievers pursued their owner and fatally shot the dogs.

Where was the cat when this happened, because I get the feeling it was the cats, not the dogs going wandering.

Cook's attorney, Richard Davis, said Cook was sorry the dogs had been killed and that his actions should be seen in the context of grief.

No, your actions are because you had a gun and a grudge.

 

[Sejanus]

These neighbours won't stop here.
It will end in a shooting.

 

[Brillig]

Nevermind...

 

[Sudonim]

Where was the cat when this happened, because I get the feeling it was the cats, not the dogs going wandering.

And you'd be wrong The guy with the dogs didnt even live next door, he just ran cattle on the land. While checking the cattle he'd let his dogs run next door to harass their cats.

A man whose cat was chased and killed by two dogs pursued their owner and shot the Labrador retrievers as they rode in the back of a pickup truck, attorneys said Tuesday in Montgomery County General District Court.

[..]

A series of witnesses that included Hamrick and Cook’s wife, Deborah Cook, described how Hamrick kept cattle on land he owns near the Cooks’ property. Hamrick would come nearly every day to care for the cattle and would usually bring two dogs, who he released to romp through the woods and streams along Poff School Road.

In 2012, one of the dogs chased and caught one of Cook’s cats, dropping it when a neighbor saw and yelled at the dog, witnesses said. The cat survived and Hamrick paid the bill for a veterinarian’s care.

But Hamrick’s dogs continued to run on the Cook’s land, testified Deborah Cook and Lori Lester, the neighbor who’d seen the 2012 dog-cat encounter.

And Cook’s cats often gathered around hay bales on Hamrick’s property, Hamrick testified.

“Cats are running loose, why shouldn’t a dog run loose?” Hamrick asked.

Sometime in the early evening of Nov. 6, Hamrick’s dogs caught another of Cook’s cats.

Deborah Cook said that she heard something thump into the outside of the house and looked out a window.

“It was the two dogs. One of them had Jeffrey in his mouth” and was shaking the cat back and forth, she said.

She woke her husband, she said, who ran out of the house in a T-shirt and underwear to try to save the cat. He returned very upset and began dressing, Deborah Cook testified. “I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack,” she said.

Stephen Cook quickly left the house again, his wife said.


Hamrick said that he’d finished with his cattle and started back to Christiansburg, pausing to put Maggie May in the back of his truck. He left the pickup gate down because Yancey, the older of the two dogs, would run along and jump in himself as Hamrick drove, Hamrick said.

Both dogs were in the truck as he turned onto Brush Creek Road and another vehicle raced up behind him, Hamrick said. Hamrick said he pulled over, thinking the vehicle wanted to pass. But the other driver pulled over too.

It was Cook, who emerged from his vehicle with a dead cat in one hand and a pistol in the other, Hamrick said.

Hamrick, who said he was hard of hearing, said Cook said something but he didn’t know what it was. Then, standing at the side of the pickup, Cook shot the two dogs who were in the pickup’s bed, Hamrick said.

Hamrick said he got his own pistol from behind his truck’s seat and pointed it at Cook, who went back to his vehicle and drove away.

Maggie May was dead, Hamrick said. Yancey died before Hamrick reached a veterinarian in Christiansburg.

Cook’s wife testified that when Cook got home, he was crying and said he’d shot the dogs. “He said he wished he’d never done this,” she said.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/c...cle—21e511f6-a6ad-5ae7-b529-4239c9b357d2.html

 

[Keepalowprofile]

I'm with the cat owner 100%

Fuck that dog owner for allowing his dogs to run. Ass hole.

 

[Stormcloud]

In that case, go cat owner!

... why would you do that? 0.o

Dogs that run onto other people's properties are dangerous and *in danger*...

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Nov 20, 2018

A Pilot man will serve three months in jail for firing a gun into an occupied vehicle and killing two dogs in anger over his dead cat.

Stephen Nichols Cook, 69, pleaded no contest to two felony counts of animal cruelty and one felony charge of unlawful shooting into an occupied vehicle, as well as a misdemeanor charge of brandishing a firearm at the dog owner, Arthur Hamrick of Christiansburg.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk sentenced Cook, a retired engineer who said he owns nearly 30 cats, to three years in prison and one year in jail. After Cook serves three months, Turk ruled that the remainder of his time be suspended. Cook must then serve two years of probation and attend anger management classes.

“I think there is a serious anger issue,” the judge told Cook. “Mr. Hamrick didn’t put his dogs out there to kill your cat. It was very unfortunate, but it wasn’t intentional. You really didn’t have any right to respond in the way you did.”

Cook also was ordered to pay $800 in restitution to Hamrick for the value of his dogs, Labrador retrievers Maggie May and Yancey.

Cook told the court he’s been rescuing cats for more than 20 years and moved from Christiansburg, which restricts owners to five cats, to the county because it imposes no limit on the number of cats on a property.

Cook said he has been estranged from his daughter from a previous marriage for 30 years and his cats are his children.

He apologized for killing Hamrick’s dogs and said he understood the grief Hamrick must feel.

Pilot man gets jail sentence for shooting Labs

CHRISTIANSBURG — A Pilot man will serve three months in jail for firing a gun into an occupied vehicle and killing two dogs in anger over his dead cat.

www.roanoke.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

He also needs grief counseling to address the lost relationship with his daughter.

Would be interesting to find out why they are estranged.