Police say a night out in Villa Rica turned grim when a party guest got behind the wheel of her Audi and deliberately ran over a neighbor’s dog in a townhome community earlier this month.
Investigators say surveillance video captured the collision on Westhampton Way in the Brookshire Townhomes subdivision around 10 p.m. on May 8, clearly showing the vehicle and helping them track down the driver.
Officers later arrested 37-year-old Kendra Yulisha Ashe of Dallas, Georgia. Detectives say they interviewed Ashe, obtained a search warrant for her Audi, brought in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office crime scene unit to process the car, and seized her cellphone as part of the investigation. Ashe was booked on May 15 on a felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals and a misdemeanor cruelty to animals charge, then released after posting a $5,000 bond, according to WSB-TV.
What the charges mean in Georgia
Under Georgia law, aggravated cruelty to animals is a felony that can bring between one and five years in prison and fines up to $15,000. Ordinary cruelty to animals is a misdemeanor.
The statute covers causing physical pain, suffering, or death to an animal through an unjustifiable act, which is the language prosecutors lean on when they say a killing was intentional rather than accidental. The penalties are laid out in Georgia Code.
Local context and other cases
Prosecutors around the state have been leaning into aggravated cruelty counts in recent weeks, especially in cases that appear to involve deliberate harm to animals.
In early May, three people in Jackson County were arrested after the shooting death of a therapy pig named Bootsie, a case that also brought aggravated cruelty to animals charges, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
As for Ashe, investigators say the case is still active and will move into Carroll County’s court system. Detectives told reporters they have already seized her cellphone and are continuing to work the case, as reported by WSB-TV. Court dates were not listed in the initial coverage and are expected to appear in Carroll County records as the case moves forward.
