Kitten basher gets 10-day jail term, probation

By DANI DODGE
Mail Tribune

A 30-year-old Grants Pass man was sentenced Monday to 10 days in jail for bashing a kitten to death in front of four stunned witnesses.

James Edward Lewis, a Grants Pass resident, pleaded guilty in Jackson County Court to first-degree aggravated animal abuse. Judge Patricia Crain told Lewis he must get counseling and couldn't own any animals during his two-year probation.

"I hope this has horrified you as it has everyone in the room listening," the judge said. "Mental health is appropriate - something is going on with you, and it's up to you to fix it."

It was because of four people in their 20s that the case came to light Sept. 18. That night, the four friends were hanging out on the front porch of a home in the 100 block of B Street in Ashland. While they talked, they played with a collarless kitten that wandered over to the house.

"It was a little tiny baby gray kitten," said Kelly McCoy. "It was fluffy. We figured it lived nearby."

After the kitten skittered off, they saw Lewis - whom they didn't know - walk past once. He walked past again with a strange grin on his face, said Kelly McCoy, one of the four.

"We heard the man, like, cussing horribly . He said, 'I'll f--- kill you,' " McCoy recalled in a phone interview Monday "He was kneeling down and smashing something against the sidewalk - I saw what he was doing and my brain didn't register it."

Lewis looked directly at the four and then walked away. The four ran to find the pile on the sidewalk was the gray kitten they had earlier played with. McCoy said she couldn't look, but one of the others said it squirmed a few times before dying. They called police.

One of the four stayed with the dying kitten while the others, armed with a cell phone, followed Lewis on foot to the Black Sheep pub in downtown Ashland. Lewis sat down to have a drink, but police arrived before the alcohol, McCoy said.

"It was just days after the terrorist attacks," McCoy said. "It seemed like the whole world was crashing in - to know that there are people walking around with that inside of them."

In court Monday, Lewis' attorney, Eugene Thompson, said "something snapped" in Lewis. He doesn't have a history of convictions for violent crime, Thompson said.

"Basically, we're not real sure why this happened," Thompson said.

In court, Lewis, a slight, bespectacled man, addressed the judge as "your honor" and spoke in eloquent sentences. He told the judge he had read the plea agreement, including the conditions of his probation.

"I pledge myself to comply to fullest of my ability," he said, still in orange jail garb. "And being that Thanksgiving is coming soon I ask the court to take that into consideration."

With time already served, the 10-day sentence will allow Lewis to be home for Thanksgiving. But the judge made it clear she was giving him 10 days instead of more so probation officers will be able to put him back in jail for a substantial amount of time if he doesn't follow the rules of probation.

As he walked out of court, Lewis said politely, "Thank you, your honor."

Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail ddodge@mailtribune.com 

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