Man accused of killing kitten with a frying pan sentenced to two years in prison
By Judy Harrison, Bangor Daily News Staff
A former Guilford man was sentenced Aug. 2 to two years in prison on charges including animal cruelty, assault on a corrections officer and violation, according to the Piscataquis County District Attorney’s office.
Ryan T. Carleton, 43, was convicted last month of killing his father’s kitten on Thanksgiving Day with a frying pan and attacking an officer at the Piscataquis County Jail on Jan. 25 along with violating his bail more than once.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson sentenced Carleton to two years in prison on the assault charge and 11 months in prison on the animal cruelty charge, according to Assistant District Attorney R. Christopher Almy, who prosecuted the cases. The judge ordered that Carleton serve those sentences at the same time.
In addition, Anderson sentenced Carleton to a suspended sentence of one year in prison to be followed by a year of probation for violating his bail in a previous matter. If Carleton violates his probation once he’s served his sentence, Almy said, he could be sent back to prison for up to a year.
Almy said that corrections officers told the judge that Carleton’s mental health problems made him one of the most difficult prisoners they’ve ever had at the jail in Dover-Foxcroft. Carleton broke televisions, mirrors and other items. He also threw urine and feces at corrections officers, the prosecutor said after the sentencing.
Carleton is expected to be transferred Wednesday, Aug. 4 to the Maine State Prison in Warren, according to Almy.
He was arrested on Nov. 26 and had been held at the jail since then unable to post bail. The time he has spent at the Piscataquis County Jail will be applied toward his two-year sentence.
Carleton was released from jail the Wednesday before Thanksgiving on an unsecured bond for the third time in a month after appearing before District Court Judge Kevin Stitham on other charges. His conditions were to not have contact with his mother, who resides in Guilford, or his father, who lives in Sangerville.
Carleton’s father testified that he had allowed his son to stay at his home that night — against the judge’s orders — because he had nowhere else to go.
The dead cat was discovered Thanksgiving morning when the father called police around 7 a.m. to report that his son was “out of it” and acting violently, according to a police affidavit.
The cat, named “Little Princess,” and was 8 or 9 months old. Its body was found beside a bloody cast iron frying pan upstairs in the room where Carleton had been sleeping, the affidavit said.
Carleton faced up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 on the assault and felony bail violation charges. On the cruelty to animals charge, he faced up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.