Woman whose dog and cat starved to death gets 6 months
WEST PALM BEACH — A 26-year-old woman whose dog and cat were found starved to death in her Boynton Beach apartment in May will have to spend the next six months in jail, a judge has ruled.
Ashley Alicia on Wednesday pleaded guilty to two counts each of felony cruelty to animals and unlawful abandonment or confinement of animal for the deaths of her brown Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix named Moose and her gray and white cat, Pablo.
Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer withheld a finding of guilt in the case based on the agreement between Assistant State Attorney Judith Arco and defense attorney Ron Herman and sentenced Alicia to six months in jail and an additional two years of probation.
According to her arrest report, police first contacted Alicea in May after someone complained of a foul odor and flies that began to swarm around the windows of her apartment in the 2900 block of Quantum Lakes Drive in Boynton Beach.
Police say Alicea gave then conflicting stories, first telling them she was out of state before she claimed she was at her parent’s house in Orlando and eventually admitting she was somewhere in Delray Beach.
Alicea later told police she had moved in with her boyfriend in Boca Raton in January and allowed a man named either Austin or Tyler to take over her apartment, and all he had to do was pay the electricity and water bills and she would keep paying rent.
She said she wasn’t allowed to bring the animals to her boyfriend’s home, so she left them with the unknown man at her apartment. She said she never explicitly told the new tenant to take care of the animals, but “figured that he would since she was paying rent.”
A veterinarian conducted necropsies on the animals and determined they died from a lack of water and food.