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Suspect in Miami-Dade cat killings posts $249,500 bond
Teenager required to wear electronic monitor
By Rachel Hatzipanagos and Mike Clary
South Florida Sun Sentinel
1:26 PM EDT, June 16, 2009
MIAMI
A
south Miami-Dade teen accused of killing and mutilating 19 cats in
Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay posted a nearly quarter-million-dollar bail
today and will be required to wear an electronic monitor, WFOR-Ch. 4
Tyler Weinman, 18, had been under suicide watch after a judge ordered him held Monday on a $249,500 bond.
Investigators, who said more arrests are possible, say they have a suspected motive. But they have declined to release details.
Weinman is charged with 19 counts of felony animal cruelty, 19 counts
of improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary.
He was arrested Saturday.
Each of the felony counts carries a minimum mandatory fine of $5,000, six months in prison and psychological counseling.
Weinman's attorney, David Macey, said his client is innocent. "I can
say the investigation is being led by a lynch-mob mentality,
steam-rolling Mr. Weinman's constitutional rights," Macey said after
Monday's hearing. "The individual who committed this crime is still
running around out there."
Weinman dissected cats last year in class at Palmetto Senior High
School, but police are not saying whether they think his classroom
training had anything to do with his alleged crime spree, The Miami Herald reported today.
Palmetto High anatomy teacher Lynn Evans, a self-described animal
lover, said she was shocked to learn her quiet former student had been
arrested and charged with cruelty to animals.
''I don't know how we can bridge the gap between a controlled
[classroom] situation, to what this disturbed young man has done,''
Evans told the Herald, saying about 8,000 of her students have dissected cats during her 24 years of teaching anatomy.
Lauderhill detectives said they doubt the teen had anything to do with 17 feline slayings in their city.
Police there said last week that lab results determined at least some
of the dead cats found in their area since May 30 were the victims of
dogs.
Miami police said tips from the community and postings on Weinman's
Facebook and MySpace pages prompted them to put him under surveillance
weeks ago, the Herald reports. Authorities declined to be give more details.
Weinman lives with his mother in the 19000 block of Ridgeland Drive in
Cutler Bay, within miles of where most of the mutilated cat carcasses
were found, police said.
His father, who is divorced from his mother, lives nearby. He is a dentist.
Weinman had joined a Facebook.com group named "Catch the Cat Killer!''
that had more than 1,000 members, including many of his high school
classmates.
Weinman has at least one prior arrest, for possession of marijuana on May 29, court records show.
Weinman's arrest prompted many residents of the Palmetto Bay and Cutler
Bay area to "breathe a huge sigh of relief," according to local animal
activist Jana Sheeder, who was busy Monday canceling a scheduled
community event billed as a "Cat Killings Educational Meeting."
The meeting was to be held Wednesday at the Palmetto Bay Village Center, and a camera crew from the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet
Sheeder, a regular volunteer at Miami-Dade County's animal shelter,
said she was "overjoyed" at the news of an arrest in the cat slaughter
case.
"Still," she added, "people aren't letting their cats, or children, go
outside just yet. It is amazing to me how many people are now in touch
with things that are going on in the community.
"This has sort of opened everybody's eyes that they need to be aware."
Information from The Miami Herald was used in this report.
Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.
Rachel Hatzipanagos can be reached at rhatzipanagos@sunsentinel.com or 954-802-9590. reports.
was planning to film it, said Sheeder, who runs a yacht brokerage.
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