Duck Killer Gets 10-Day Sentence
A 21-year-old gun enthusiast who pleaded guilty to a single charge of animal cruelty in connection with a duck-hunting incident was sentenced Friday to 10 days in Ventura County Jail.
James Carl Brown of Camarillo, who admitted killing three ducks with a crossbow in a Port Hueneme park this month, will be allowed to apply for the county work-release program.
Brown did not speak during the sentencing hearing Friday in Ventura County Superior Court.
But Victor Salas, Brown’s defense attorney, said that the defendant planned to eat the animals after he shot them with the crossbow. Salas likened the crime to fishing without a license. “He didn’t intend to torture any animal,” Salas told Judge Steven Hintz. “What he did is intend to eat [the ducks].”
Hintz also ordered Brown to serve three years probation.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon urged the judge to order Brown to stay away from firearms, in part because investigators found at least 20 semiautomatic weapons during a search of Brown’s Camarillo apartment.
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