Vinyetta Campbell

Name:
Campbell, Vinyetta Jerline

Date of Booking:
04/24/2026

Reason(s) For Booking:
Cruelty to Animals – 5 Counts

Aggravated Cruelty to Animals

Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]

On 04/24/26 at 1246 hours, I was dispatched to [30 BLOCK] Alisha Cir, Cartersville, GA, in reference to an agency assist with Bartow County Animal Control in reference to deceased dogs inside of animal cages and other animal cruelty.

Upon my arrival, I met with the animal control officer, Samantha Griffin. She began to tell me that she had responded to the above address due to a complaint received by their office regarding the smell and possible animal abuse. Officer Griffin told me that she had taken a video of the kennels from when she had first arrived and went to check on the dogs. She showed me the video, in which I observed horrid living conditions for the dogs, observing large amounts of feces in the kennels, and then observing skeletonized remains of a canine, with fur still remaining around the bones. In the video, the bones and fur were inside one of the kennel cages.

I then proceeded to the rear of the residence to the dog kennels with Officer Griffin. I observed the same horrid conditions, along with a tremendous foul odor of feces and urine. The kennel door that had contained the skeletonized remains was open, and the remains had been removed from the kennel. The suspect/animal owner, Lindsey Campbell, walked outside while we were in the backyard. Lindsey was telling me that the kennels were in the condition that they were in because he had just recently been released from the hospital for some heart issues, and his wife/suspect, Vinyetta Campbell, is pregnant and unable to scoop or shovel the feces because of that. Officer Griffin pointed out to me a clear plastic trash bag with fur in it, which was the canine remains that Lindsey had removed from the kennel prior to my arrival, and while Officer Griffin was at her vehicle, awaiting my arrival.

I then asked Lindsey how the animal remains came to be, and he began to explain that they were there because he had purchased the kennel used from Facebook Marketplace. Lindsey said that the kennel was filled with feces, bikes, animal food bags, and remains. Lindsey said he knows that the kennels are usually very expensive, and he got it because it was a good deal since he needed to clean it out himself to be able to use it. Lindsey then began down a story path about having to fix up all of the kennels as best that he could afford, and then into how he has heart problems, seemingly avoiding the question about the remains with his story.

After the end of Lindsey’s story, I asked for his information. Officer Griffin then told me that Lindsey had told her that he got the middle kennel, of the three that he had, which was the one that contained the remains, sometime between 04/02/26 and 04/09/26. I then asked Lindsey about the remains again by asking him, “So you are saying the remains are still in there from the previous owner?” and he said yes. Lindsey said that the last owner had chickens, raccoons, and all kinds of stuff in the kennel. Officer Griffin told Lindsey that the remains she observed were definitely dog remains, including skulls in the kennel, and he denied this by saying there were no skulls in the cage.

Based on the video I was shown by Officer Griffin, I doubted this story, because I observed the skeletons to have large rib cages and were large skeletons, consistent with those of canine species. Surrounding the skeletons was fur, which I know does not break down as fast as skin does, based on my experience in dealing with deceased animals at work. The fur appeared to have been from a long-haired species. Based on what I saw, I could not differentiate whether these skeletons could have been from a non-domesticated canine species, such as a coyote or wolf.

All of the kennels on the property were relatively large wooden kennels. They had all been built so that they were sectioned in half, vertically down the center, to create two kennels per building. There was a total of six living canines in the kennels. It appeared to me that one canine was a bull terrier breed, three were pitbull or bulldog type breeds, and the last two were possibly mastiff or cane corso style breeds.

In each dog kennel, I observed a substantial amount of feces and urine, from where the dogs appear to never be let out of the kennels. Each kennel did contain water and food, but in some, the dry dog food appeared to have just been thrown on the floor, and some of the dogs had either feces or urine on some parts of the food, since it was just loose on the floor. Each one of the dogs appeared dirty and unkept, many with extremely long nails that have likely never been properly maintained, with some even beginning to grow sideways, being distorted from growing towards the ground and constantly standing on them. One of the pitbull breed dogs was living in the conjoined kennel next to the skeletal remains that had been taken out, in extremely unsanitary conditions for a dog to be living next to remains.

I then proceeded back to my patrol vehicle to run a check on Lindsey and see if we had any prior complaints, and to call and verify his story about being in the hospital. I did not observe any prior reports or arrests against Lindsey within our local system for animal cruelty. I was later provided information by Piedmont Cartersville Medical Center, the hospital in which Lindsey claimed to have gone to, that the last time he was a patient was on March 24th, 2026, where he was only a patient for a few hours and then released. His previous hospital visit before March was a year prior. This information led me to doubt Lindsey’s story about having been in the hospital for some time, since they did not have any record of it. Officer Griffin had come up to my patrol vehicle during this time and advised me that another one of their officers had responded to a complaint at this same address on 04/02/26 and then returned for a follow-up on 04/09/26.

Officer Griffin said that no action was taken at that time, but it could possibly have been because the other animal control officer was not being as thorough with the complaint. Officer Griffin was able to pull up a couple of photographs from the previous complaint on 04/02, and it showed that the middle kennel, the one that Lindsey alleged was purchased after animal controls’ last response, was already there on 04/02, proving that he was lying about when he had purchased it. Lindsey had also come up to my patrol vehicle around this time and said that he had messages from when he had purchased the kennel. Lindsey found his messages on Facebook and showed them to me, which showed that the messages were from October 2025. The messages were for an entertainment center-style dog kennel for indoors, which I pointed out to him. Lindsey said that he purchased the kennel that had the remains at the same time as he purchased the smaller indoor kennel, from the same seller.

Throughout my interactions with Lindsey, he maintained that the skeletal remains were in the kennel from the previous owner. At another point of walking into the backyard, I observed another set of skeletal remains near a tree next to the kennels. Lindsey said that it was one that had been removed from the kennel. The fur coat from this skeleton appeared to be settled into the ground quite well, indicating to me that it had been there for some time.

After going through the whole scene, speaking with Lindsey on multiple occasions, and handling the administrative aspect for animal control, I placed Lindsey under arrest for Cruelty to Animals based on all of the aforementioned conditions. I placed Lindsey in my patrol vehicle, where he later started complaining of chest pains, so I summoned Metro EMS and Bartow Fire to the scene. Lindsey was cleared by paramedics with Metro EMS and determined not to be having a heart attack, and given clearance to take him to the jail.

During the period that I was with Lindsey, Officer Griffin had begun removing all of the dogs from the kennels. I observed all of the canines to be at least partly covered in their own feces, most having almost all of their coats saturated with it. Almost all of the canines were overly excited to exit the kennels, rolling around in the grass a lot, acting as if they had not been allowed into the grass or yard in a very long time.

It was discovered during this time that the smaller brindle colored cane corso breed canine was limping and was very unsteady. She was so unsteady that she could barely stand or even sit up without assistance. I could clearly see the definition of her rear hip bones, and a severe sunken area of her stomach between her rear hips and rib cage, and sunken areas in between her rib bones, making her rib bones very visible through her coat and skin. She also had some sunken areas around her ears and possibly beneath her eye sockets around the jaw, indicating that she had a very, very low fat content and was in dire need of direct specialized or specific care to avoid death. For this canine, I determined her extreme lack of care to be the most serious, and that it would be aggravated cruelty to animals.

Vinyetta had arrived on the scene while all of the animals were being removed. Vinyetta was not being very cooperative with animal control, needing to remove another canine, a Yorkshire terrier-type breed, from the residence. Vinyetta finally went down to the residence to retrieve the canine to give to animal control. Both she and Lindsey were advising that the canine in the residence belongs to Vinyetta’s mother and not them, that they were only watching it. Another bull terrier-type canine was discovered to be in the residence as well, which nobody had told us was there, and its presence was unknown. Corporal Kelci Ashworth took evidence pictures for this case for me with her body-worn camera, and I took some as well on my body-worn camera.

I later transported Lindsey to the Bartow County Jail. During the transport, Lindsey had begun making spontaneous utterances. He said that he has not been living at the above address for around seven months since he was caught cheating, and he was living elsewhere. Lindsey said that he goes to the house to care for the dogs, but Vinyetta was the main one residing with the dogs. Lindsey did say that Vinyetta does not want anything to do with the dogs and doesn’t want them there. Because Lindsey and Vinyetta are legally married, they both exercise ownership and control over the animals. After arriving at the jail, I contacted Corporal Ashworth and provided her with the above statement from Lindsey. The other deputies that were on scene placed Vinyetta under arrest for me and later transported her to the Bartow County Jail as well. Both Lindsey and Vinyetta were turned over to the staff for further processing.

No animal deserves to live in the conditions that I observed at this residence. The smell of feces and urine from the kennels was so strong that it remained on my clothes for the remainder of my shift, without having ever been inside the kennels myself, only having been around them for a short period of time. In total, eight living dogs were removed from the residence, six from outside and two from inside, and six deceased skeletal remains were removed.

I obtained arrest warrants for both Lindsey and Vinyetta. I obtained one count of aggravated cruelty to animals for each, and five counts each for misdemeanor cruelty to animals, one charge for each canine for both. The warrants were signed into the bonding window at the jail. No warrants were obtained for the two inside dogs, as they appeared to be in good health and had better living conditions inside the residence than the other dogs. Animal control located a total of six deceased remains at the residence. I have not taken any charges for these animals at this time, as I was unable to determine where the remains originated, and whether or not Lindsey and Vinyetta may have been the owners or exercising control over the deceased animals.

[End of Narrative]