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FLOYD COUNTY, Ga. – A Floyd County couple whose children lived in a house with 37 dogs and floors covered in dog waste can avoid criminal convictions after being sentenced as first offenders.
Michael Robert Thornton and Jessica Nicole Thornton pleaded guilty Oct. 8 to two counts of first-degree cruelty to children and one count of cruelty to animals, Floyd County Superior Court records show. Both were sentenced under Georgia’s First Offender Act. Prosecutors dropped 31 other animal cruelty counts.
Under the act, a judge accepts a guilty plea but does not enter a conviction. If the Thorntons finish their sentences without violating the terms, their cases close without a finding of guilt and the records are kept from public view. First-degree cruelty to children carries five to 20 years in prison.
The terms of the sentences, including any probation or jail time, were not available in public court records.
Both were represented by attorney Jeffrey M. Heller. Bond had been set at $5,000 each in April.
School social workers raised concerns in January after the children, ages 11 and 15, came to school with a strong odor, according to an incident report. The older child showed up more than once with animal feces on his shoes and book bag.
When officers walked through the house on Old Dalton Road on Feb. 4, the smell of feces and urine was so strong it was hard to breathe, the report said. Dog waste covered the floors. The walls and door of the younger child’s room were smeared with what the officer believed was feces.
The 15-year-old slept on a pull-out bed in the living room. A search the next day found feces on his mattress in the shape of paw prints. Neither child’s closet had clothes in it.
A Division of Family and Children Services caseworker had been in the home the week before and planned to close the family’s case Feb. 6, the report said. She told the officer the family had earlier cases for the same reasons and had always cleaned up just enough to close them.
The couple were arrested Feb. 5. They told officers they had done nothing wrong and the house had not looked that way the day before. The officer wrote that it was in the same condition.
Animal Control took the dogs, and a building inspector posted a notice closing the house. The children were placed with family friends in Bartow County. A Bartow County deputy who checked on them Feb. 17 reported they had clothes, beds and other children to play with.