TEXARKANA, Texas–A Simms, Texas, man accused of choking and beating to death at least a dozen dogs and puppies is asking a state appellate court in Texarkana to release him from jail, saying he has no chance of making the “oppressive” $600,000 bond currently set in his case.
Stuart Duncan Hammonds, 24, allegedly took canines belonging to other people and some he found through online sources and killed them on property in rural Bowie County, according to a probable cause affidavit. Following his arrest in mid-October last year for 12 counts of felony animal cruelty, his bail was set at $100,000 on each count, or $1.2 million.
At the end of a hearing in June, 202nd District Judge John Tidwell agreed to cut that amount in half but Hammonds wants the Sixth Court of Appeals to order that he be freed on his own recognizance while his case proceeds. In a brief to the court, Hammonds argued that the current bond is so high as to be equivalent to being in a “no bond” situation.
In his brief to the appellate court, Hammonds noted that he has a history of maintaining employment at low-wage jobs and that his father testified he was a good student in high school who grew up with and “loves dogs.” Hammonds further noted that he has never been convicted of a felony and has one prior conviction for a misdemeanor.
In a response filed last week, the state argued that setting bond at $50,000 for each third-degree felony count was “reasonable” and pointed out that Judge Tidwell was permitted to not only consider Hammonds’ ability to make such a bond but the probable cause affidavit submitted by law enforcement when they sought a warrant for his arrest on the charges.
According to an affidavit in Hammonds’ case, he came to the attention of authorities after a woman alerted local enforcement of information that Hammonds had killed her missing dogs. A witness reported that they had seen Hammonds kill a neighbor’s dogs and puppies by “choking them and slamming them around until they died,” the affidavit said.
When investigators visited the property where Hammonds lived, they could smell the odor of decay and observed the skeletal remains of numerous canines, the affidavit said. Near a camper where Hammonds was living and scattered about a barn on the property investigators found the carcasses of seven dogs, the affidavit said. Other remains were discovered beneath a rubber mat and cardboard box near the barn, the affidavit said.
Investigators listed the remains as belonging to dogs described as: an adult female tan and white Pitbull-type, three six-month-old mixed breed puppies, two black and tan hound-type dogs, a German Shepherd, a black and white Great Dane, an adult female mixed-breed dog, a Pitbull dog of an unknown color, and two Beagle-type dogs, according to the affidavit.
“As a result of this investigation so far, a seizure warrant for the two Great Danes previously described was obtained to preserve life, as it is believed Hammonds has been cruelly torturing and killing dogs on his property,” the affidavit said.
Hammonds is currently being held in the Bowie County jail. If convicted of felony animal cruelty, he faces two to ten years in prison on each of 12 counts. He is scheduled to return to court next month for a pretrial hearing.