TOOELE » A 20-year-old Springville man who mutilated and killed two goats last Halloween in Tooele was sentenced Tuesday to 2½ years in the Tooele County Jail.

"This particular crime kind of makes me sick," said 3rd District Judge Stephen Henriod. "I can't imagine the type of person who would do this."

Orion Kent Mitchell Stoltman had pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated cruelty to an animal, class A misdemeanors, and one count of theft, a class B misdemeanor.

The judge also ordered Stoltman to pay a $2,500 fine and $300 restitution.

After the hearing, the owner of the goats, Dena Linnell, said when she learned of the crime "it completely broke my heart."

Tooele police have said that in the early hours of Oct. 31, Stoltman and two juveniles broke into a pen containing the goats, named Daisy and Duke. The animals were found with their heads nearly severed outside Tooele's North Lake Elementary School.

Linnell said that based on the statement of one of two 17-year-old boys who were with Stoltman that night, a hacksaw was used to remove the goats' heads and they were also stabbed with a knife.

However, assistant Tooele City prosecutor Matthew C. Johnson told The Tribune that according to pictures he had seen, the goats' heads were still attached to their bodies although the necks had been hacked with a sharp object. He said the goats were killed with a hatchet.

Told about the prosecutor's statements, Linnell retorted, "My husband saw them [the goats] ... they were completely decapitated."

She then complained that the few times she spoke with Johnson he didn't know anything about the case and had to look at the file. She said he also failed to return other phone calls.