23-Year-Old Texas Man Filmed Abusing and Killing Cats at Animal Shelter Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison

A Texas man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after torturing and killing cats at an animal shelter.  

Gabriel Skyler Caswell, 23, pleaded guilty to 12 additional counts of animal cruelty and was sentenced to 10 extra years in prison on Tuesday, March 18, said Parker County District Attorney Jeff Swain, per CBS News, WFAA-TV  and the Fort-Worth Star Telegram.

Caswell will serve the new sentence concurrently with the 30 years he was sentenced to in previous trials for the same offenses last year, per the outlets.

The Weatherford Police Department began investigating the deaths of several kittens at an animal shelter in 2023, according to a news release. The shelter — which was later identified by local news outlets as Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter — said it initially believed that the kitten deaths were “disease-related” until necropsy results came back negative. 

It wasn’t until July 2023 when an employee at the animal shelter witnessed his coworker, Caswell, mistreating a kitten, and investigators obtained video evidence of the mistreatment that he was arrested, according to the police. 

“Mr. Caswell was finally caught when a shelter staff member walked in while he was abusing a kitten,” Parker County District Attorney Jeff Swain said in a release, according to WFAA-TV. “From that point, shelter staff and Weatherford Police Department detectives invested hundreds of hours reviewing surveillance video that proved what Mr. Caswell was doing and ended up making our 15 cases.”

The Parker County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the case.

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According to CBS News, the footage obtained by police showed Caswell torturing kittens at the shelter by throwing the creatures against walls, stomping on them and even smashing their heads and necks. The outlet also noted that footage showed him disposing of the kittens’ lifeless bodies in trash cans. 

The footage was played during the trial causing jurors to “cry” and some clips were not played as they were deemed too upsetting, according to the District Attorney’s Office, as reported by WFAA-TV.

Swain said, per the outlet, that Caswell admitted to police that he took out his frustrations on the kittens due to stress from an infant at home and due to his inability to access pornography.

“In my nearly 30 years as a prosecutor, I have seen some horrific things. However, I have never actually witnessed on video this particular kind of cruelty,” Swain said in a statement, as noted by the Fort-Worth Star Telegram. 

“To stare into the eyes of an innocent kitten while you literally snuff the life out of them like this defendant did takes a really sick and twisted person,” he added.

CBS News report that, according to the District Attorney’s Office, Caswell will not be eligible for parole until his time is served.