Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Domestic violence offender throws puppy out of sixth-floor window

Ohio judge tells Michael Sutton: ‘I would love to put you in a dumpster'

New York

Tuesday 17 May 2016 19:33 BST

Michael Sutton has already spent time behind bars for hitting his mother and girlfriend (WKYC)

The judge in Ohio who convicted a man of throwing a puppy out of a sixth-floor window told him he would like to put the 23-year-old in a rubbish bin.

Municipal court judge Michael Cicconetti told Michael Sutton that “all he could do” was put Mr Sutton behind bars for six months and keep him on probation for five years, but what he and “a lot of other people” would like is to give him “one of those creative sentences”.

“You are just vicious. You are revolting. You are cruel,” he said.

“Oh, would I like to put you in a dumpster? Hell, yeah,” he added. “I would love to do that.”

The body of the puppy was found near Mr Sutton’s apartment in a rubbish compactor.

According to Fox affiliate WJW, Mr Sutton told police he threw the lab-pit bull mix called Knox out of the window as it urinated on his bed.

Mr Sutton, a repeat offender, has already spent time behind bars for domestic violence as he “broke his mother’s ribs“ and beat the mother of his child while she was in hospital, and later at home while she was holding the baby, according to the judge.

The most controversial animal killings

Show all 6

1/6The most controversial animal killings

The most controversial animal killings

Cincinnati Zoo worker shots and kills Harambe, the 17-year-old gorilla

Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla was shot and killed by a Cincinnati Zoo worker after a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure and was grabbed and dragged by Harambe. The incident was recorded on video and received broad international coverage and commentary, including controversy over the choice to kill Harambe. A number of primatologists and conservationists wrote later that the zoo had no other choice under the circumstances, and that it highlighted the danger of zoo animals in close proximity to humans and the need for better standards of care

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

The most controversial animal killings

Walt Palmer (left), from Minnesota, who killed Cecil, the Zimbabwean lion (pictured here with another lion shot in Africa)

Walter James Palmer has been named by Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force as the shooter of Cecil, a 13-year-old prized lion. He is now wanted by Zimbabwe officials on poaching charges. The lion was protected and the subject of a decade long study by the Wildlife Unit of Oxford University in the UK. He was outfitted with a GPS collar and was killed in Hwange National Park. The Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority and the Safari Operators Association said that two men were charged with poaching in connection to Mr Palmer

The most controversial animal killings

Kendall Jones hunting images

Kendall Jones, a 19-year-old Texas Tech university student, has provoked worldwide fury after posting pictures of herself smiling next to animals she hunted, including a lion, rhinoceros, antelope, leopard, elephant, zebra and hippopotamus

The most controversial animal killings

Rebecca Francis hunting images

Rebecca Francis, a huntress who has killed dozens of wild animals has been sent death wishes by furious social media users after a picture showing her lying down next to a dead giraffe was circulated. Rebecca Francis has a website and Facebook page dedicated to the animals she has killed in hunts across Africa and America. Francis, a prolific hunter who has also co-hosted the television show Eye of the Hunter, regularly posts pictures of herself posing next to dead bears, giraffes, buffaloes and zebras, among other animals. She uses a bow and arrow to kill her prey

The most controversial animal killings

The slaughter of Marius, an 18-month-old healthy giraffe in Copenhagen Zoo

Copenhagen Zoo made the controversial decision to euthanise a healthy giraffe named Marius, which was later dissected and fed to lions as visitors watched. The slaughter sparked a furious backlash from social media users and zoo staff have received death threats by phone and email. Soon after the incident, Copenhagen Zoo faced an international outcry once again after four healthy lions were put down

The most controversial animal killings

Swiss Dählhölzli zoo kills healthy brown bear cub

A Switzerland zoo faced heavy criticism from animal rights groups, after keepers put down a healthy brown bear cub to spare it from being bullied by its dominant male father. The 360 kg male bear Misha had already killed one of his 11-week old cubs in public and was bullying the second, staff at the zoo said, because he was jealous of the attention the cubs were receiving from their mother, Masha. Both adult brown bears had been donated to Bern’s Dählhölzli zoo in 2009. Campaigners condemned staff there for not separating the cubs, who are being referred to as Baby Bear Two and Baby Bear Three, and their mother from Misha after their birth in January

Facebook

In a video on WKYC, Mr Cicconetti lamented how many people blame their crimes on “mental illness”, like the 23-year-old, and receive money from the state for medication yet fail to take it.

“I am sick and tired of people coming in here and blaming this on mental illness,” the judge continued. “Then we have to get you medication. We have to pay for it, and then you don't take it. Where does that leave a court? I know what I'd like to do. I'd like to give you one of those creative sentences, but that's for people who can be rehabilitated, people who are first offenders. You are not. You are not one of those people. You are just brutal and savage, and that's all there is to it.”

Mr Sutton has been banned from ever owning an animal again.

“I wish I could say you’re not allowed to be around people, because look what you do,” said Mr Cicconetti.

The judge is infamous in the region for handing out so-called creative sentences.

According to the Chicago Tribune, he ordered a man who called a police officer a “pig” to stand beside a live pig with a sign that read: “This is not a police officer”. Another time he forced a woman who abandoned ill kittens to spend one night in the woods with food or water.

“We started small,” Mr Cicconetti told the News-Herald in 2012. ”It was more out of frustration because after a year or two years, we were seeing the same people come back, with the same offenses. I thought, 'There has to be a better way to do this.’“

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies