LANSING - Two 18-year-old males from Escanaba - each convicted on three animal torture charges earlier this year - are serving prison terms in different facilities downstate, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. A third defendant will be sentenced today.
Nicholas Michael Leisner and Peter John Sauve were sentenced to three counts of killing/torturing animals on Feb. 6 in Menominee County Circuit Court. Each had pleaded guilty to the three charges and were sentenced to two to four years in prison.
The charges stem from a July 18, 2011, incident when Leisner, Suave, and a third defendant, Chad Meier Jr., also of Escanaba, beat three purebred Angus cattle on a Wilson farm. Two pregnant heifers had to be euthanized due to their injuries. A bull survived the beating but can no longer be used for breeding.
Meier is scheduled to be sentenced today in Menominee County after judgments were postponed on March 14 and April 10. He faces three counts of aiding and abetting in the torture of the three cattle. He pleaded guilty to the three felonies earlier this year.
Leisner is lodged in the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in downstate Jackson. His earliest release date is Jan. 26, 2014.
Sauve is serving his term in the Thumb Correctional Facility in downstate Lapeer. His earliest release date is Feb. 3, 2014.