After 3-hour federal trial, man convicted in ‘animal crush’ case

It began with a call to Houston police from an animal rights group about a website peddling videos of a half-dressed woman torturing puppies and kittens with a meat cleaver.

An animal cruelty officer who took the call subsequently discovered that a man had been recruiting animal torture-averse actresses on an African dating site, and then marketing custom-made “animal crush” videos and livestreamed performances to customers in California and Washington, D.C., according to court testimony.

The man, 54-year-old Brent Justice, was convicted in federal court Monday of selling the videos across state lines. He was already serving a 50-year state prison sentence for making these fetish videos.

After a three-hour bench trial, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake convicted Justice on the spot of three counts of making so-called “animal crush” videos and one count of distributing them. He faces a maximum of seven years in prison on each count at his sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 18.

At the trial earlier this week, the federal prosecutor called three witnesses. The defense called none, and Justice waived his right to testify.

Animal blood on walls

The first witness called to the stand by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Zack was Justice’s co-defendant, Ashley Nicole Richards, who admitted to appearing in videos and mutilating and killing animals at Justice’s direction. Richards is serving a 10-year state prison term and recently received a 3½-year federal term in connection with the videos.

Richards, now 25, had pleaded guilty to three state counts and entered into a plea deal on four federal counts of making and distributing the videos.

She told the judge that she had suffered physical and sexual abuse as a child in Waco. When she was a homeless teenager, Justice, whom she had met through a phone chat service, took her into his Houston home and began referring to her as his niece, she testified.

They did not have a sexual relationship, she said, but he persuaded her to wear skimpy outfits and star in a number of videos in which she tortured and slaughtered animals, including a chicken, a puppy and a kitten.

Most of the videos were custom-made for people she believed had made their requests to Justice online.

Suzanne Hollifield, the animal cruelty officer, testified that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, tipped off the Houston Police Department’s animal cruelty division to the videos, and that she later determined they were linked to an alias used by Justice.

A search warrant at their shared home turned up lights, cameras, and a tripod believed to have been used in the videos as well as a Mardi Gras mask, high heels, a dagger and a butcher knife that matched ones used in the videos.

Analysis of Jusice’s computer led investigators to digital evidence that he had been courting women on an African dating website with questions about whether they knew how to slaughter farm animals.

Blood spatter on the walls of Justice’s home was analyzed and identified by a crime lab as having come from both a dog and a cat.

David Ko, a special agent for Houston’s FBI division, also took the stand, explaining through emails and receipts he obtained, how Justice had sold his videos through PayPal and Western Union to customers.

Dismissal sought

Philip P. Gallagher of the federal public defender’s office offered minimal cross-examination of the witnesses. However, once testimony was completed, he argued for dismissal of the case on the grounds that the videos did not meet the federal definition of “obscenity.” The videos showed no acts of bestiality, and Richards was not naked, nor did her genitalia show, Gallagher told the judge.

Zack countered that Richards had used profanity in one video indicating she was raping a kitten with a dagger.

Justice faces a maximum of seven years on each federal count.