Man Who Tortured And Killed Cats In Metro Denver Gets 8 Years

ARVADA, CO — A man accused of torturing and killing cats and throwing their bodies in a dumpster behind an Arvada pet store was sentenced to prison in Jefferson County on Oct. 15.

Evan Bretches, 39, will serve eight years for aggravated animal cruelty charges in Jefferson and Adams Counties. He had already been sentenced to four years for unrelated charges of animal cruelty in Adams, which will be served consecutively with a four-year sentence from JeffCo, the Jefferson County District Attorney's office said.

Employees of an Arvada PetSmart Store called police on Jan. 15, 2017 after finding several dead cats and a cat bed in the store dumpster, a police arrest affidavit said. Some of the cats and kittens had their feet and heads bound with duct tape. A veterinarian who conducted forensic autopsies on the animals told police some of the cats had died from blunt force injuries to the head.

On surveillance video from the day before, police observed a white male, dressed in black, take something out of a black four-door sedan and throw it in the dumpster, the affidavit said.

In September, 2017, DNA obtained from the duct tape matched that of Bretches. Police said Bretches committed the second round of crimes while on probation from the animal cruelty cases in Adams County, the affidavit said.

In Sept. 2016, Bretches, who was married with a child, had admitted to Thornton police that he had beaten a cat with a hammer. He blamed the incident on "anger" and police believed he was addicted to heroin at the time. Bretches also had other convictions in Alabama and Colorado, including domestic violence on his record, the affidavit said.

Investigators found that Bretches had obtained cats and kittens from pet owners advertising online through Craigslist, the affidavit said. He promised to take good care of the animals, former pet owners told police. Some of the cats Bretches adopted from former owners were never accounted for, police said.

A warrant search of his phone found videos of him swearing at an injured cat in a cage and kicking and beating the cage, according to the affidavit. In another video, a man's voice was heard mocking a trembling cat, saying, "Kitty, Kitty say cheese." He then said, "smile and say dead."

Bretches pleaded guilty in Jefferson County in in September to aggravated animal cruelty (second offense), the District Attorney's office said.

Bretches is currently being held in prison in the Sterling Correctional Facility, according to an online inmate roster.

Image via Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

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