A Valentine's Day split between a Strawberry, Calif., couple ended when the 36-year-old boyfriend allegedly killed his ex-girlfriend's cat, an El Dorado County Sheriff's deputy said.
Christian Dale Beach was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty and was being held at El Dorado County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bail.
On Monday, Beach's 35-year-old girlfriend, Tracy Barker, called the sheriff's department asking for a deputy's presence while she gathered her belongings from a house they shared on Margaret Drive.
The two had been going out for about five years.
When Barker asked Beach about her cat, a 4-year-old orange mix with a bob tail named Bobbyy, Beach reportedly said he put it in the pound a few weeks before.
Four hours later, Deputy Mike Yarbrough received an animal-cruelty call at the same address. Barker and her friends went to the pound, didn't find the cat, and returned to the house where they reportedly saw Beach holding the cat by its throat and head.
According to testimony of one witness, Beach twisted the cat's head and slammed it against the ground three times.
"I want (Beach) to get help, and I want him to pay for what he's done," Barker said. "I mean, that was my best friend."
Beach then grabbed the cat and reportedly went inside the house. Later, tracks in the snow led an assisting deputy, Matt Underhill, to Beach, who was hiding behind a tree. Beach denied killing the cat, but the animal's carcass was found in the fireplace with its head burned off by a blowtorch, Yarbrough said.
During last summer's fires in Southern California, Barker's house in Ontario and all of her possessions, except Bobbyy, were destroyed, she said. His ears were burnt off, and he suffered burns from embers, she said.
Assistant District Attorney said animal cruelty can be a felony. California penal code states a person can be punished with prison time and a fine of no more than $20,000.