A Long Beach man was sentenced to jail for two years for killing his cats, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office (LADA) announced today.

Steven Ullery, 24, pleaded guilty and was charged last month with a felony count of cruelty to an animal.

Prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney Paul Guthrie said that when the crime occurred, Ullery was living with his wife, who owned several cats.

Between March and August 2013, five of the cats died, two of which were adopted from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (spcaLA) in July 2013.

When the two cats from the spcaLA died a month after being adopted, Ullery and his wife brought the bodies back to the spcaLA, saying they were “defective” and requested a refund, Guthrie said.

Following that incident, spcaLA began investigating and learned that in March and May 2013, Ullery and his wife brought three additional dead cats to the Uptown Animal Hospital in Long Beach. One of those cats died from “blunt force trauma to the face,” Guthrie said, and the other was choked to death.

Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) officers arrested Ullery on January 23 in connection with the animal deaths. He was later released on $60,000 bail.

Ullery was sentenced today by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Tomson T. Ong to two years in state prison, which will be served in county jail. Ullery was also ordered that he cannot own, possess, reside with or care for any animal for at least 10 years.

In another animal cruelty case involving the killing of a cat, a preliminary hearing for Long Beach resident Sergei Smirnoff will take place in Dept. 4, 8:30AM, at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Torrance on January 12. Smirnoff was arrested on Christmas Eve after a witness reported that he had injured and fatally strangled a cat that he had gotten at the Downey Animal Care Center. The cat, Roxy, was intended as a gift for his estranged girlfriend, who refused it.

According to California Penal Code Section 597, any person convicted of intentionally killing, maiming or otherwise abusing any animal is guilty of a felony. If you witness the abuse of any animal, call Animal Care Services at 562-570-7387.