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Grand Prairie Man Pleads Guilty To Mutilating, Killing Cat

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM)  - As jury selection was about to begin Monday, a North Texas teenager that killed and mutilated a neighbor's cat pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty.

18-year-old Oscar Vega was arrested in August 2013 after being accused of hitting a cat with a hammer 30 times, then decapitating and disemboweling the animal.

According to reports, after being alerted by witnesses, an animal services officer arrived on the scene and saw the cat's carcass with its intestines hanging out of a box near Vega's apartment. Following a brief search, authorities found a knife under Vega's bed that had blood and fur on it.

Vega laughed about the incident and said "it was just an animal." according to testimony from an Animal Services officer at a November trial, and also noted that Vega was "lackadaisical" about the killing of the cat.

Vega faces up to 10 years in prison. The punishment trial has been set for February 18th.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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