Man Faces 4 Counts of Cruelty

A Torrance man faces four counts of cruelty to animals after allegedly killing his girlfriend’s two cats by cooking them in a microwave oven.

Larry Richard Heine, 31, a self-employed tow truck operator, told Torrance police that he killed the cats after a fight with his girlfriend Oct. 26, Sgt. Jack McDonald said.

“He stated to police that he had put both cats in the microwave for 30 seconds,” McDonald said.

Heine was arrested two days later, and the misdemeanor charges were filed Wednesday by Torrance City Prosecutor J. D. Lord after the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office decided not to file felony charges.

McDonald said Heine’s neighbors told police that he had threatened to kill the cats if his live-in girlfriend, Lori Stevens, did not immediately return home after their fight.

Heine returned a few minutes later to the neighbors’ house, where he believed Stevens was staying, holding a cat that was convulsing and foaming at the mouth, McDonald said. Minutes later, Heine brought over the second cat, which he threw into the neighbors’ yard with the first, the police official said.

McDonald said Heine later removed the cats, which have not been found.

Police took Heine into custody that day and drove him to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for psychiatric observation, McDonald said.

Heine was released several hours later, but was arrested when he appeared at the police station Oct. 28 to recover the microwave oven and a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition that officers had confiscated.

In an interview Thursday, Heine denied killing the cats.

“We had an argument. I threatened to throw the cats in the microwave. Then the police came,” he said.

Heine said the cats have disappeared. “We let them go. They came here. They ate. They split,” he said.

McDonald, however, said police found animal hair in the oven.

Heine faces up to two years in jail and $4,000 in fines if convicted of two counts of cruelty to animals and two counts of cruelty to an animal owned by someone else, Lord said.

The Torrance prosecutor called the case “sufficiently outrageous to put him in jail.”