In May, during Georgia’s spring turkey season, a 16-year-old hunter was charged with a felony for shooting a gobbler on his family’s property that his former high-school teacher claimed was her pet. Although the investigation that prompted the aggravated animal cruelty charge took less than a week, the ensuing legal case dragged on for nearly six months and divided the small-town community of Waverly Hall, where the incident took place.
That all came to a close Tuesday during a trial in juvenile court, where a Harris County judge found the teen hunter not guilty of the felony charge.
Because juvenile cases are sealed in the state of Georgia, Outdoor Life was unable to obtain transcripts of the court proceedings. (OL will continue to keep the minor’s name confidential for this same reason.) The teenager’s family has so far been unwilling to comment on the trial, aside from sharing the judge’s final verdict via text message. The two defense attorneys who represented the teen have also not responded to requests for comment about what transpired Tuesday.
But according to conversations with the teen’s family before the Nov. 4 trial took place, the case against the now 17-year-old hinged around two key questions: whether the turkey killed April 27 on the family’s 11-acre property belonged to the teacher and her husband; and whether the teenager knew it was their pet bird when he pulled the trigger.
In issuing his “not guilty” verdict, the juvenile court judge must have found that there was insufficient evidence to affirmatively answer those two questions, and to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the teen was guilty of a felony, aggravated cruelty to animals. (This is a step up from the misdemeanor charge, cruelty to animals. According to Georgia law, the difference is whether the individual acted with malice.)
So, while the judge’s reasoning might be unclear, his “not guilty” verdict ultimately means that there was doubt in his mind as to whether the teenager knew the bird was his teacher’s pet when he shot it.