HOUSTON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Two Houston residents made gory videos showing animals being killed and sold them to people who used them for sexual gratification, federal authorities allege.
A federal grand jury handed up a seven-county indictment Wednesday, charging Ashley Nicole Richards, 22, and Brent Justice, 51, with creating and distributing the disturbing "animal crush videos," the Houston Chronicle reported. The pair have been held in the Harris County Jail since their arrest in mid-August.
The videos, made from February 2010 to August 2012, show puppies, chickens and kittens being killed. Prosecutors allege Richards and Justice used meat cleavers and other animals to torture the animals.
If convicted, they could be sent to prison for as long as seven years on each of five animal crush charges and a possible five years on each of two obscenity charges, officials said.
