Warrant issued for 'No Show' Wiggins in Nova abandonment case

Apr. 30—WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr. issued a capias warrant for Terik Wiggins for failing to appear at his sentencing hearing Tuesday on an animal cruelty offense related to abandoning Nova, a pit bull, in Pittston nearly three years ago.

Wiggins, 31, was scheduled to be sentenced on a felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals, in which, he pled guilty to the charge March 11. Wiggins was free on $50,000 unsecured bail.

When Sklarosky called the case, Attorney Nathan Hartman said Wiggins was not in the courtroom, resulting in the judge issuing the bench warrant.

Wiggins along with Shaniqwa Shantel Scott, 25, of Plymouth, were charged by Pittston City police and county detectives in February 2023, after a lengthy investigation that was launched when Nova was found abandoned and in poor health on Davis Alley, Pittston, on June 8, 2021.

The SPCA of Luzerne County took custody of Nova who suffered from severe emaciation, severe dermatitis, an ear infection, fleas, hookworm, angular limb deformity and overgrown nails.

Nova was nursed back to health by the efforts of the SPCA, Shoemaker Animal Hospital and Dr. Sara McGarry, and Maxwell's House and was adopted by retired Pittston City police chief Neil Murphy and his wife, Lena Angelella, police chief in Pittston Township.

Murphy and Angelella brought Nova into the courtroom for the sentencing hearing.

Scott pled guilty to a misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals and is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

When Wiggins is apprehended, he will be jailed at the county correctional facility on the bench warrant as his sentencing hearing will be rescheduled.

In unrelated cases, state police at Wilkes-Barre this week charged Wiggins with drunken driving stemming from a traffic stop on Interstate 81 in Plains Township on Aug. 22, 2022, and Wiggins was sentenced by Judge David W. Lupas on April 3, to 30-days probation on a possession of marijuana conviction.