Chilling video of Calgary man killing his girlfriend’s cat shown in court

Grainy and blurry video showing Calgarian Dawson Troy Miller brutally beating his girlfriend’s cat after she told him he was acting childish was played Thursday in a city courtroom.

Crown prosecutor Rose Greenwood ran the footage to show provincial court Judge Terry Semenuk the vengeance-laced tirade Miller created for his girlfriend after she broke up with him.

“You think I’m a 12-year-old,” Miller says on the video, which he shot on his cellphone.

“I just smashed the (crap) out of your stupid cat,” he said in the message he sent to Amberlise Montgomery.

“That’s what happens when you call me (an expletive) 12-year-old … I just killed your (expletive) cat.”

As the video played in court, Miller sat in the prisoner’s box wiping away tears.

Greenwood said Miller’s actions warrant an 18-month jail term followed by probation.

She said unlike many cases of animal cruelty which involve offenders lashing out at pets for bad behaviour, such as urinating on a carpet, Miller’s crime was in a domestic context done out of “revenge, spite and vindictiveness.”

“Dawson Miller was exacting revenge on his girlfriend for calling him a 12-year-old and breaking up with him,” she said.

But defence lawyer Yoav Niv said his client’s mental health issues, which included being treated for depression, and his difficult upbringing, warranted a much more lenient punishment.

Niv agreed with Semenuk’s assessment that his client is “a damaged individual.”

The lawyer suggested a conditional sentence order, which would be served in the community, or at worst a jail term of 90 days on weekends, would be sufficient.

Semenuk will hand down a ruling next month.

Original Article: https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/chilling-video-of-calgary-man-killing-his-girlfriends-cat-shown-in-court