MUNCIE, Ind. — A Delaware County resident faces criminal charges for failing to care for dogs while being held in jail.
Devin R. Townsend, 29, of Eaton, was charged Monday in Muncie City Court with three counts of cruelty to an animal, a Class A misdemeanor carrying a maximum one-year jail term.
According to court documents, Eaton police on Oct. 20 went to Townsend’s Orchard Street home and found three dogs “abandoned for four days without food or water.”
The officers said the dogs were being held outside in “deplorable conditions.”
The canines were given food and water and arrangements were made for them to stay elsewhere, the documents said.
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Townsend at the time was being held in the Delaware County jail following an Oct. 17 arrest for domestic battery and strangulation.
In the affidavit, a jail official suggests the Eaton resident could have placed a call, while held in the jail, asking someone to care for the dogs.
Townsend’s spouse, 25-year-old Ashley N. Townsend, was also charged Monday with three counts of cruelty to an animal.
Affidavits indicate she was staying at a shelter for battered women in the wake of Devin Townsend’s Oct. 17 arrest.
The elder Townsend’s trial on the domestic battery and strangulation charges is set for March 10 in Delaware Circuit Court 4.
Also on that day, Devin Townsend is set to stand trial on three charges — domestic battery, strangulation and resisting law enforcement — filed in May.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.