15 Kentuckians sentenced for animal fighting offenses

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Fifteen Kentuckians have been sentenced for animal fighting and cruelty.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 11 individuals have now been sentenced to federal prison for their participation in animal fighting offenses in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Four other individuals were sentenced to home detention or federal probation.

48-year-old Jerrard McVey and 42-year-old Linda McVey, both of Carlisle, were sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison for conspiracy to knowingly sponsor and exhibit animals in an animal fighting venture in connection with the Valley, a chicken pit on the border of Nicholas and Fleming Counties.

According to their plea agreements, the McVeys, conspired with others, including 48-year-old Walter Mitchell of Ewing, to organize multiple animal fighting ventures in the form of cockfights at the Valley. Specifically, on July 30, 2021, the McVeys and others organized and managed an animal fight that included at least a dozen entries in a 5-cock fight and approximately 100 attendees.

Mitchell was sentenced in March 2023. He received six months in prison and one year of supervised release.

In March 2023, Cruz Alejandro Mercado-Vazquez, of Maysville, was sentenced to 15 months incarceration, three years supervised release, and a $10,000 fine, for attempting to bribe the Mason County Sheriff to influence the Sheriff in connection with a planned animal fighting venture.

43-year-old Timothy Sizemore, of Manchester, was sentenced to 26 months incarceration, two years supervised release, and a $1,000 fine for his role in running an animal fighting venture in Manchester called Riverside, and an animal fighting venture in Pike County, Ky, called Blackberry.

Sizemore’s co-defendant in running Riverside, 73-year-old Millard Oscar Hubbard of Manchester, was sentenced to 12 months of one-day incarceration, two years supervised release and a $95,000 fine.

A referee at Riverside, 34-year-old Justin Smith of Manchester, was sentenced to one month of incarceration, 18 months of supervised release, and a fine of $250.

The owner of the property on which Blackberry operated, 58-year-old Perry Hatfield, was sentenced to eight months of home detention and two years of supervised release.

Individuals who worked at Riverside, 38-year-old Beachel Collett of Oneida, and 26-year-old Lester Collett, of Manchester, were sentenced to 4 months of home detention and 18 months of supervised release.