Serial Cat Killler's hearing today...

[moosmom]

Here's the article that appeared in the New Haven Register:

By Lauren Garrison, Register Staff

ANSONIA — New questions were raised Monday when the 57-year-old Ansonia man charged with 10 counts of cruelty to animals appeared in court.

Defendant Jay Baldwin’s attorney, public defender Jonathan Gable, shared with the court a new theory: The kitten Baldwin is accused of killing might have died from ingesting rat poison.

Gable explained this theory as he requested that Judge Karen Nash Sequino remove his client’s $10,000 bail, in lieu of which Baldwin has been held since his arraignment Aug. 8. Sequino ultimately lowered Baldwin’s bail to $5,000, the amount she had originally set on the warrant for his arrest. According to the clerk’s office, Baldwin remained in jail Monday in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Baldwin was arrested Aug. 8 following a police investigation that found one kitten died of head trauma while in his care, and several other cats were ill and malnourished. A search of Baldwin’s residence turned up nine cats and five birds. Baldwin had returned two kittens, including the one that died, to the woman from whom he had adopted them.

All of the cats appeared neglected or abused, police said, with problems ranging from poor nutrition to trauma and parasites. Four eventually had to be euthanized.

According to Gable, Dr. Jeffrey Schpero of Derby, the vet that examined the dead kitten, found it had suffered bleeding, but found no evidence of a skull fracture or broken bones. That, along with Baldwin’s continued insistence he didn’t kill the kitten, prompted Gable to consider whether an illness or toxin could have caused the bleeding.

Gable said that when an animal eats rat poison, it can experience bleeding, bruising, hemorrhage or death. One common sign an animal has ingested rat poison is blood in the stool. Gable said Baldwin told police and the woman from whom he adopted the kitten that he saw blood in its stool a week before it died. Baldwin’s landlord had put down rat poison in his apartment after Baldwin complained of rodents, Gable said.

The autopsy the University of Connecticut conducted on the kitten didn’t include a test that would have detected rat poison in the kitten’s system, Gable said.

Gable said several experts he consulted said this test is commonly done in cases involving unexplained bleeding. He said UConn didn’t believe they were dealing with unexplained bleeding, because they were told the kitten had been beaten.

The kitten has been cremated, and as far as Gable knows, there’s no way now to run such a test.

Questions also exist pertaining to Baldwin’s mental capacity. According to Gable, Baldwin has an IQ of 68. As he lacks legal capacity to make decisions for himself, he has a conservator, an unnamed attorney.

Gable said he didn’t know whether Baldwin could be tried as an adult. Gaetano declined to comment on the issue.

Gable said he was troubled by animal rights protesters who have stood outside the courthouse before Baldwin’s last two appearances, holding signs and calling for harsh punishment for him and stricter laws on animal cruelty. As Baldwin left the courtroom Monday, one protester in the audience yelled out to the judge before rushing from of the building. Among other things, the protester said, “He’s going to kill again.”

“It boggles the mind that people can show up here like the villagers from the Frankenstein movie and demand (Baldwin) be burned at the stake, because they have so much compassion for other living creatures,” Gable said.

Lisa Gay, owner of H3 Pet Supply in Shelton and a member of the Trumbull Animal Group, was skeptical of Gable’s theory the kitten died from rat poison.

“There was severe trauma to the head and neck.

“You don’t get that from rat poison,” she said. In response to Gable’s assertion the kitten’s lack of broken bones proves it wasn’t beaten, Gay said that kittens’ bones aren’t hard enough to break.

Baldwin is due back in court Oct. 2.



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Irene is out for blood now. She is on her way to the court house to talk to the prosecutor to tell him that "Gable said Baldwin told police and the woman from whom he adopted the kitten that he saw blood in its stool a week before it died" that Balwin never EVER told her anything about the bloody stool. She said that everytime she called Baldwin, he said the kitten was fine and doing well. The day he killed the kitten, he told Irene, "I don't know, something must've just popped in it's brain."

Irene is absolutely furious right now. She said she'll sit and wait for him all day if she has to.

The guy can't read or write. He tried to get one of his girlfriends to sign the "landlord" portion of a food stamp appllication and she refused. She was dumped the very next day. This piece of
$6it is very cunning and charming when he wants to be. In the court room he put on a great act.

I called the lab at UConn that did the necropsy to find out if a test can be done on the cremains to determine any toxins. The woman there said it depended on the toxin. I told her rat poison. Unfortunately, rat poison, when ingested, affects the liver and kidneys and is not absorbed in the bone.

My theory is because the necropsy determined blunt force trauma to the head and neck, the kitten was shaken, sort of like "Shaken Baby Syndrome" only it's shaken kitten syndrome. There was no skull fracture just bleeding internally in the skull, lungs, etc.

I did like the fact that our presence is known and pissing the defense attorney off, which means we WILL be there at every single hearing.