Grand jury charges Asbury Park man with raping and killing his pet cat
FREEHOLD — An Asbury Park man accused of repeatedly raping his pet cat before handcuffing and torturing her to death has been indicted on charges that could send him to prison for five years, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said Monday.
A Monmouth County grand jury returned an indictment charging Bani J. Mezquititla, 18, with two different counts of animal cruelty - tormenting, torturing or unnecessarily or cruelly abusing a living animal, resulting in its death and using an animal in a sexual manner.
Both of the animal cruelty charges are third-degree crimes, each carrying potential prison terms up to five years.
Mezquititla remains held without bail at the Monmouth County Jail since his arrest in the case in March. Superior Court Judge Henry P. Butehorn granted the state's detention motion at a hearing March 14 at which an assistant prosecutor described horrific abuse allegedly committed by Mezquititla upon his cat named "Ellie.''
At the hearing, Assistant Prosecutor Sevan Biramian alleged Mezquititla raped the cat multiple times over a period of months and also sexually abused her with a pencil; tortured her by repeatedly strangling her with a pulley device consisting of a phone-charger cord, door knob and dresser knob; bound the feline's limbs behind her back with miniature handcuffs during the torture; cut off her tongue and part of her jaw while she was still alive and, once she was dead, threw her out of his apartment window.
Mezquititla took pictures and video of the torture, Biramian said at the hearing. Some of the visual evidence included selfies showing Mezquititla smirking as Ellie fought for her life while she was being strangled, he said. One of the videos showed the defendant handcuffing the cat's paws behind her back, the assistant prosecutor said.
Mezquititla was arrested March 2 after he first told his roommate the cat had run away and later admitted to her he killed the pet and threw her out of their apartment window, Biramian said. The roommate went outside and retrieved the animal's corpse and brought it to the Asbury Park Police Department.
Upon his arrest, Mezquititla confessed to the abuse, which he said began in December with him masturbating in front of the cat and escalated to sexual intercourse and torturing the animal with a pencil, Biramian said.
At the hearing, the judge noted that Mezquititla explained his handcuffing of the cat as "pretending to be a police officer and arresting the cat after it ran away.''
Biramian and Assistant Prosecutor Keri-Leigh Schaefer are handling the case.
Anyone with further information on the matter are urged to call Asbury Park Detective Anthony Houlis at 732-502-4582; the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' chief humane law enforcement officer, Michael Goldfarb, at 732-542-0040; or SPCA Lt. Michael Magliozzo at 732-440-4538.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park man raped and killed his pet cat: grand jury
