Bond revoked for teen accused of animal cruelty in Miller County

A teen accused of torturing and killing a house cat and two pet rabbits may soon be back in jail.

Devan Taylor Diltz, 19, was free on bond in a pending Miller County, Ark., animal cruelty case when he was arrested May 13 in Garland, Texas, where he is currently living with his mother, for burglary of a habitation. That arrest led Miller County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell to file a motion to revoke the $15,000 bond Diltz was free on in the animal cruelty case.

Diltz was allegedly living with his father and stepmother in Texarkana, Ark., when he strangled Socks, his stepmother’s tabby cat, and threw the animal out of a car window Dec. 10 as he drove along Jefferson Ave., according to a probable cause affidavit. He faces a felony aggravated animal cruelty charge in that case which is punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Two misdemeanor animal cruelty charges involve Huckleberry and Aurora, rabbits kept by his father, stepmother and sister as pets until their disappearance Dec. 8. Diltz allegedly told staff at a Louisiana mental hospital that he enjoys torturing animals. Diltz allegedly told a friend that he tortured and suffocated Huckleberry and Aurora before nailing their bodies to a tree, dismembering them and burying them in a Texarkana, Ark., park.

Diltz allegedly claimed that he later dug up the dead rabbits, dismembered them more and burned their carcasses before burying them a second time. Investigators found a charred cardboard box which contained maggots buried on the grounds of Sugarhill Methodist Church, where Diltz reportedly told his friend he’d buried one of the rabbits. At Ed Worrell Park in Texarkana, Ark., investigators with animal services found a tree with holes in it that could have been made by nails.

Diltz is scheduled to appear Tuesday for a pretrial hearing before Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson in a courtroom at the Miller County Detention Center.