Decatur man pleads guilty to animal cruelty felony

DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — A Decatur man is facing the possibility of several years in prison after he pleaded guilty to an animal cruelty charge earlier this week.

Mark Miller Jr. was charged with a felony count of aggravated animal cruelty, along with several misdemeanors, after five dogs were found on his property in brutally cold conditions in December of 2022 . The temperature at that time was 1° Fahrenheit and the windchill fell to -16°.

It was in those conditions that a woman saw an 11-year-old bulldog named Blue outside Miller’s house, shivering, stumbling around and struggling to get back up after he collapsed. She called Macon County Sheriff’s deputies, who arrested Miller. Blue, meanwhile, was nearly dead and nothing could be done to save him. Veterinarians euthanized him.

The deputies found four other dogs in “rough shape,” with frozen water, no food and only plywood dog houses with a bit of straw for shelter.

Animal cruelty and neglect is a Class A misdemeanor in the State of Illinois, but aggravating factors in this case led to one charge being upgraded to a Class 4 felony. On Tuesday, Miller pleaded guilty to that felony count while five other misdemeanor charges were dismissed.

He faces one to three years in prison and will be sentenced at the end of October.

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