Beechview man pleads guilty, awaits sentencing for poisoning, killing cats

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Beechview man will be sentenced in December for killing three cats from a homeless colony in his neighborhood.

DanielT. Smith, 44, pleaded guilty before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski on Monday to six counts of animal crueltyfor poisoning the three cats along Realty Avenue in July2015.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, the homeless cats had been designated a colony by Animal Friends and had been spayed, neutered and vaccinated.

They were fed by two women on the street, Cindy Matera and her daughter, Christina Zilliott.

On July 14, 2015, the affidavit said, the women called police to say that Mr. Smith had put two dead cats in their trash can, gotten in his car and driven away. Another cat was found vomiting, and was later euthanized by a veterinarian. Pittsburgh police Officer Christine Luffey said that the colony previously had 11 homeless cats, and only three were left. The women also told police that Mr. Smith said to them, “‘I killed six or eight of your cats, and I’ll kill the rest of them.’”

Throughout the course of the investigation, officers discovered mothballs scattered throughout Mr. Smith’s yard. Mothballs, which contain napthalene, are poisonous if consumed.

When officers spoke to Mr. Smith, the complaint continued, he told them that the cats were a nuisance and he was tired of finding feces on his sidewalk.

“‘So what. I have mothballs,’” he said, according to the affidavit. “‘It’s not illegal for me to own mothballs and put them in my yard.’”

Mr. Smith told the police that no one owned the cats, that they have no rights, and that the police couldn’t prove that he killed them.

The charges Mr. Smith pleaded to are first-degree misdemeanors, which carry a maximum of five years in prison.