Police said a Las Vegas man killed a stray cat that his neighbor had rescued and then claimed he was acting in self-defense.
Joshua D. Booth, 51, killed a 2-year-old female cat named Rita after an ongoing dispute with the neighbor about the multiple animals she had been caring for, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report and court records.
Booth told police that the cat attacked him and that it then “spontaneously drowned,” the report said.
Police were called to the east Las Vegas home of Kimberly Guthrie just before midnight on April 12, according to the report. Guthrie showed the officers video of Rita being thrown from a nearby garage into the street.
When officers from Metro’s Animal Cruelty Section later arrived, they found Booth, Guthrie’s neighbor, with what appeared to be scratch marks on his arms.
Booth, according to the report, told officers that the cat that was thrown from his garage had attacked him and that he “acted, simply, in self-defense.”
Booth told officers that he had been having issues with the cat “entering his house” and that the animal had damaged items, broken glass, and damaged plates in his town house.
“If you attack me in my own home, you might spontaneously drown,” Booth told officers, according to the report.
After investigators obtained a search warrant, the report said, they found another cat, a 1-year-old female cat named Sweetie, inside Booth’s garage. That cat was “wet and appeared frightful,” according to the report.
Guthrie told police that Rita and Sweetie were two of a group of multiple stray cats that she looks after in her neighborhood. She said she had previous disagreements with Booth over the cats and a “rambunctious” dog that she owns.
While searching Booth’s garage, officers found a clear tub and determined, after looking at Rita’s body, that the cat likely died after being submerged in water.
“Rita was soaking wet and while she could have been doused with the hose, it seems far more likely that she was submerged,” the report said. “The close proximity of the upturned plastic tub to the garden hoses in the garage substantiates this.”
Booth was charged with a felony count of malicious torture of an animal used for companionship or pleasure resulting in death, according to court records.
Booth was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on April 13, but was later released on bond. A representative who works with Las Vegas attorney Andrew S.T. Fitz, the lawyer listed for Booth on court documents, declined to comment Thursday.
Las Vegas Justice Court records show that Booth is scheduled to appear in court on June 23.
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.
