The trial of a Scott County man, who plead not guilty to 379 counts of animal cruelty and two counts of theft of leased/rented property, was delayed in court on Tuesday, October 1.
Jay Parker, of Waldron, was arrested back in May. The charges against Parker go back to December 2017. The alleged 379 missing head of cattle, according to the affidavit, died on his property or on property he had leased. Authorities allegedly observed several hundred dead cattle on Parker’s property. The affidavit claims the bodies were “in different stages of decomposition…there was no way to get an accurate count due to the number of scavengers scattering bones and some dead cattle stacked on top of each other.”
The animal cruelty charges are class A misdemeanors, and the theft of leased/rented property are class B felonies. Scott County Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey granted the continuance to allow Parker more time to prepare for trial. Parker’s jury trial is now set for November 25, 2019 at 9:30 a.m.
