Jay Baldwin is going to jail!!!!

[moosmom]

Justice has been served!!!! The judge handed down his sentence. He was sentenced to 4 years concurently, which means he will serve one full year in the worst correctional facilities in CT, in Bridgeport.

This is a wonderful day! Finally he's getting what he deserved. One can only hope that a big prisoner named Bubba, who is an animal lover, makes his life a living hell while he's there. I'm sure once he gets out (if he gets out in one piece), it's a matter of time before he screws up again. Then he'll HAVE to serve the rest of his 4 year sentence.

I'm in tears of happiness. The judge did what she promised. And the prosecuting attorney finally came down hard on him.

My Little Boy's death was not in vain. I'm now going to go light a candle in memory of My Little Boy and his brother, Chance, who has been severely traumatized by watching his brother be abused and killed.

To Chancie,

Baby, you're safe now. No one will ever hurt you ever again.

[pomtzu]

We're all doing a happy dance here in Delaware!!!

[phesina]

Hallelujah!!!!!

[Medusa]

Justice at last!

[moosmom]

Here's the news article that appeared in the New Haven Register.

For the first time, the group of animal rights advocates that has attended every one of Jay Baldwin’s court appearances since his August 2008 arrest on animal cruelty charges walked out of the courtroom smiling.

Judge Karen Nash Sequino Thursday sentenced Baldwin to serve one year in jail. This came after Baldwin, 58, pleaded no contest to two charges of cruelty to animals, no contest to second-degree failure to appear and guilty to fourth-degree larceny. Sequino explained that a no contest plea means Baldwin does not admit to the charges against him, but also does not contest them.

Baldwin’s attorney, public defender Jonathan Gable, requested that Baldwin serve his time at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, where he’s been held since April and feels comfortable. The clock on Baldwin’s year in jail started April 23, the date when Baldwin was charged with the larceny.

The group of about a dozen animal rights advocates was emotional as they left the courtroom after hearing the sentence.

“We’ve been waiting so long for this,” said Donna Ploss of East Hartford. “It’s a groundbreaker for animal cruelty (cases).”

Irene Hudobenko of Ansonia, who adopted out to Baldwin the kittens he was accused of harming, said she was relieved Baldwin would be off the streets for a year and unable to “hurt anyone or anything.” However, Hudobenko felt confident that as soon as Baldwin was released, he’d go back to adopting and abusing cats.

Baldwin was first arrested by Ansonia police in August 2008 on 10 counts of animal cruelty. Police said one cat in his care died of head trauma and several others were ill and malnourished.

In December, Sequino granted Baldwin’s request to enter a supervised program for people with psychiatric disabilities, avoiding jail time.

Baldwin was rearrested March 25 on a charge of failure to appear for not returning to court after failing to comply with the supervised program. On that date, Shelton police were called to the Huntington Center Gulf gas station, to which Baldwin had returned a week after stealing $650 from the cash register. When the officers went to question Baldwin about the earlier theft, they learned of an arrest warrant charging him with second-degree failure to appear. They took Baldwin into custody and continued to investigate the theft. On April 23, they served Baldwin with a warrant charging him with fourth-degree larceny.

Gable called the sentence imposed by Sequino “a good deal” for his client.

“The facts of the new case (the larceny) really limited what we could do,” he said, particularly because Baldwin has a past record of larceny convictions.