Crime

Apologies - I did not even know there was one...

FARGO — A Fargo man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for abusing his ex-girlfriend and killing her kitten with a microwave.

Cass County Judge Cherie Clark sentenced 24-year-old Carlos Perez on Monday, June 10, to five years in prison for aggravated domestic assault and terrorizing. The prison terms for each of those charges will be served concurrently.

He received an additional three years in prison for animal cruelty for beating and killing a kitten.

“This was pure torture,” prosecutor Katie Nechiporenko said of Perez killing the cat.

Perez pleaded guilty to the three Class C felonies Monday.

The investigation into Perez started Sept. 3 when a woman reported Perez assaulted her the night before, according to court documents. Perez wanted the woman back early from work because he didn’t have a phone and wanted to use hers, a criminal complaint said.

The Forum does not identify victims of domestic violence.

When the woman showed up late, they got into a fight and he slapped her, which split her lip, the complaint said. The woman tried to call 911, but Perez grabbed the phone and broke it, the complaint said.

Charges related to that incident were dismissed Monday when Perez pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault, terrorizing and animal cruelty charges stemming from two other incidents in August.

The complaint said Perez cut the woman’s middle finger with a knife on Aug. 7. The woman needed stitches because of the injury, the complaint said.

Perez also abused and killed the woman’s kitten on Aug. 19 “as a result of her not coming home at a time that Carlos deemed appropriate” when the woman went to a P!nk concert that night, according to court documents. He sent pictures to her showing him holding that cat on a stove burner, the complaint said.

Perez also hit the kitten over the head with a speaker, causing it to have a seizure, the complaint said. He then choked the cat, burned the kitten’s feet with a lighter and put the kitten in a microwave to kill it, the complaint said.

He then put the dead kitten in a dumpster and told the woman “that would happen to her next,” the complaint said.

When asked about the incidents, Perez told police, “I was mad,” according to the complaint. He also claimed he was giving the kitten a bath when it scratched him, so he got mad and “blacked out,” according to the complaint.

The woman was not in the courtroom on Monday. A relative read a letter on her behalf, saying that fear overshadowed her life because of Perez.

Perez threatened to harm the woman's family if she left him, she wrote in the letter. He also threatened to kill her with rocks, she said, adding he kept rocks in his closet.

“The defendant’s cruelty knew no bounds,” the woman wrote.

Killing the cat in the manner Perez did shows his “sadistic nature,” the woman wrote. In asking for the strictest sentence possible, she said Perez poses a threat to the public and possibly could kill his next victim.

Nechiporenko asked for a prison sentence totaling eight years — three years for the assault and terrorizing charges, plus five for animal cruelty. She said she received dozens of letters from across the country asking her to hold Perez accountable for the torture of the kitten.

Animal Victory, a North Carolina organization that raises animal cruelty awareness, sent a letter to Clark and asked for the maximum punishment, which would be five years in prison for each of the three felony charges.

More than 16,000 supporters signed a petition asking that Perez be held accountable for abusing the woman and killing her cat. The letter to Clark asked that Perez be prohibited from owning or residing with animals.

“What Perez did to this innocent kitten is unconscionable,” the letter said.

Perez’s attorney, Tanya Martinez, asked he be sentenced to two years in prison, noting the man's mental health issues.

“He is horrified by his actions that night,” Martinez said.

His grandfather, Louis Perez, said the defendant had a rough childhood and lost both his parents when he was young.

Carlos Perez’s brother, 20-year-old Gabriel Perez, was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2018 at the now-demolished McDonald’s in downtown Fargo. The killer, Miguel Jay Cooley, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder.

The grandfather said Carlos Perez has been on his own for most of his life. The 24-year-old needs help, not prison, Louis Perez said.

“That doesn’t help anybody, being in jail,” the grandfather said.

When asked if he wanted to make a statement in court, Carlos Perez said, “I don’t really have anything to say.”

Clark acknowledged Carlos Perez took responsibility by pleading guilty, but he didn’t appear to show remorse, she said.

A criminal history that included domestic violence, paired with this case, showed an escalation of violent behavior, the judge said. The victim in this case didn’t do anything to deserve the abuse, and Carlos Perez used an innocent kitten as a tool for manipulating her, Clark said.

“Domestic violence is all about power and control,” she said. [end of full article]