A Houston man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for cruelty to animals. Brent Justice, 54, was convicted and sentenced on February 16, 2016 in a Houston court for his role in filming animal crush videos over a period of two years.
Crush videos are videos filmed for fetish culture in which small animals are tortured and/or killed for the sexual gratification of observers. They are considered a federal crime in the United States.
Justice and co-defendent Ashley Nichole Richards, 23, were arrested in August of 2012 after a complaint came forward from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The two were charged in federal court under a statute that has criminalized the sale and distribution of crush videos.
Note: some of the details of the crimes may be disturbing to some readers.
According to the PETA statement at the time of their arrest:
“Richards reportedly admitted to killing countless animals—up to two per day—over the years. She faces felony cruelty-to-animals charges: one for a video made in 2010 in which she binds and gags a kitten with masking tape and then stomps and crushes the animal, including putting her high-heeled shoe through the kitten’s eye, and for another video in which she kills a pit bull puppy by using a meat cleaver to hack off his leg and tail and a knife to slash his neck and cut into his leg. Justice faces a felony cruelty-to-animals charge for filming Richards as she killed the puppy with a knife.”
Richards pleaded guilty to the charges and testified against Justice in the case. It came out during the trial that Richards was a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and been living on the streets as a teen and was prostituting herself when she met Justice.
Justice pleaded not guilty and the case was delayed going to trial multiple times by Justice’s repeated filing of legal motions. Although he was assigned three attorneys, he ended up choosing to represent himself, according to the Houston Press.
Investigators said Justice filmed Richards stabbing animals, as well as chopping off their limbs and urinating on them while making sexual comments. Judge Jay Burnett and people at the trial had to watch the disturbing videos.
At one point in the trial, Justice tried to pass off the brutal torture and decapitation of a puppy as somehow a kosher slaughter and therefore would somehow not be considered animal cruelty. The Houston Press reported that a Rabbi testifying in court pointed out the obvious fact that there is no Jewish ritual slaughter of dogs.
In the end, Justice was indicted for torturing an animal in violation of the state’s cruelty laws regarding non-livestock animals and Judge Jay Burnett handed down his 50-year sentence against Justice.
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