This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The deaths of 10 horses in a west Salt Lake County field last year was a horrible accident, not an act of negligence by the Erda horse trainer charged with their care.
That is the contention of the attorney who represents Shamus Josef Haws, 40, who is charged with 11 counts of class C misdemeanor animal cruelty in Salt Lake County Justice Court.
Haws has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he faces a punishment of up to three months in jail and a $750 fine for each count.
The animals were found dead July 18, 2014 in a private, fenced field near Pleasant Green Cemetery, near 3500 S. 9200 West in Magna on July 18, 2014. The land is owned by Kennecott Utah Copper Corp., although at the time it was leased to Erda Livestock.
Pictures of the animals that will be used as exhibits in the case will show the animals' dehydrated bodies strewn across the field.
"By seeing the pictures of these horses you will feel as though somebody needs to pay," Haws' attorney, Jay Kessler said during opening statements in a jury trial which began Tuesday. "Please be objective. Take a step back and then decide whether it was a crime, or whether it was an accident."
Kessler contends that although Haws was responsible for the animals, which he left in the pasture 10 days earlier, it was a contract employee for the company Haws runs with his father-in-law who was tasked with making sure a trough in the field was always filled with water.
It is a job that Troy Butcher had done for Haws' family — who pays the water bill — for about four years, Kessler said.
But Salt Lake County prosecutors told jurors that Butcher believes his job ended once he turned on the water spigot and that checking the trough was not his responsibility, nor had Haws or his father-in-law given Butcher any specific instruction.
It is Haws, Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Adam Blanch said, who was in charge and should be held accountable.
"We don't think he intended to hurt these animals," Blanch said. "We think he got careless."
Blanch also said that Haws made risky choices when he failed to ensure that the watering system intended to keep the trough filled was secure. The day the animals were found, he said, the hose system was on the ground, not in the trough.
Court documents say that Haws told an animal control officer that one of the horses may have pulled the hose out of the trough.
Prosecutors said Haws put the horses in the pasture on July 8 and checked on the animals only once, despite a string of daily temperature readings in the 90s and higher.
Necropsies performed on three of the horses by the state Veterinary Diagnostic Lab found the animals died from dehydration, Blanch said.
But Kessler said that the exams also suggest that the horses might also have died from poisoning, raising questions about whether access to water was the only issue.
Range horses are known for sticking close to their last known water source, Kessler said, but these were found dead in spots all across the pasture, which raises additional questions.
"So something very curious has possibly happened here," Kessler said. "There was nothing callous, or not taking care of ... [Haws] had everything in place to make sure these horses were cared for. We believe that it's just a horrible accident."