Gabriel Skyler Caswell, 23, was a full-time employee of the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter when the abuse occurred.
Editor's Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of animal abuse. A Parker County man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for torturing and killing kittens while working at an animal shelter there.
Gabriel Skyler Caswell, 23, of Weatherford, has been convicted of 15 charges of cruelty to non-livestock animals. Caswell pleaded guilty Tuesday to 12 of those charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in each of those cases. He previously stood trial for the other three animal cruelty charges, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison in each of those cases as well. In all, 43rd State District Judge Craig Towson ordered that Caswell’s prison sentences be “stacked” or served consecutively instead of concurrently, which amounts to 40 years in prison. Caswell abused and killed the kittens while working as an animal care technician at the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter. He worked there for less than a year, said Parker County District Attorney Jeff Swain. The animal shelter’s surveillance cameras captured footage of Caswell stomping on kittens, smashing their heads and necks in cages, kicking them and throwing them across the room, as well as many other forms of abuse, according to a press release from Swain’s office. In two videos, Caswell was seen carrying dead kittens, who were stiff with rigor mortis, then throwing them into a trash can. READ MORE: Her ticket won $83.5M Texas Lotto jackpot. Officials won't let her cash in. Caswell, who never testified, showed no emotion throughout the case, the district attorney told the San Antonio Express-News on Friday. Caswell also stared down at the courtroom table and wouldn’t look at the screen when videos of him abusing the kittens were shown in court to two juries. He was hired as a full-time employee at the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter in February 2023, according to WFAA TV in Dallas. That same year, animal shelter staff began investigating an unexplained increase in kitten deaths, Weatherford Police Department said in a news release at the time. That investigation lasted several months. Former shelter director Dustin Deel testified that the shelter began having a dramatic increase in the number of cats dying, most of them kittens. The number of deaths in just a few months was more than the shelter had during the four preceding years combined. Weatherford police told WFAA TV that the shelter had 50 kitten deaths in June 2023 alone — the month before Caswell was arrested. The mystery was solved when another shelter employee walked in as Caswell was abusing a kitten. Other employees confronted Caswell, who left the area before Weatherford police arrived. Police reviewed a surveillance video, which prompted detectives to obtain a warrant for Caswell’s arrest. He was arrested several hours later for cruelty to animals. Shelter staff, Weatherford police and the district attorney’s team then spent hundreds of hours reviewing the shelter’s surveillance video footage, which led to a total of 15 charges of animal cruelty filed against Caswell. “Our shelter’s staff could not imagine that someone among them could be so cruel to such helpless, innocent creatures,” Swain said. “Once they found it, they invested all of their efforts into helping us get justice for the kittens who had been tortured by Mr. Caswell.” Among the 15 cases in which Caswell was convicted, nine kittens died and six survived, Swain said. Each of those 15 incidents were captured on the shelter’s surveillance cameras, he noted. “He was basically smashing them and watching the life go out of a kitten’s eyes,” Swain said Friday. “Some of these kittens lived through just unbelievably horrible abuse. I have no idea how they did.” Caswell later told police that he focused on kittens and not adult cats because the grown cats would fight back, Swain said. Investigators found one video where Caswell attempted to hurt an adult cat, but the animal put up a fight by using its claws to grab a cage door. ALSO READ: Cold front to bring Texas scattered thunderstorms this weekend. Here's what we know. “In my nearly 30 years as a prosecutor, I have seen some horrific things,” Swain said. “However, I have never actually witnessed on video this particular kind of cruelty. To stare into the eyes of an innocent kitten while you literally snuff the life out of them like this defendant did takes a really sick and twisted person.” In September, Caswell pleaded guilty to cruelty to non-livestock animals for one of the kittens he killed. A jury gave him the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to the district attorney’s press release. In October, a different jury sentenced Caswell to 10 years in prison for another kitten he killed. In December, Caswell pled guilty to another cruelty to animals charge for a kitten that survived his abuse. In that case, Caswell opted for a judge to determine his punishment. Towson sentenced him to another 10 years. Caswell pleaded guilty to the remaining 12 charges Tuesday. He also agreed to dismiss all his appeals from his first three trials. Some of the jurors in Caswell’s first two trials — both men and women — became emotional while watching the animal abuse caught on camera. “You could see the tears streaming down their faces,” Swain told the Express-News Friday. At each of the jury trials, prosecutors ended up not showing all the videos of the 15 kittens abused or killed “because we just couldn’t subject our jurors to anymore,” Assistant District Attorney Ryan Whyte said in the news release. After those trials, the district attorney’s office offered counseling resources to all those who served as jurors. None of them accepted the offer, Swain said. In a statement made to a Weatherford police detective that was played for the juries, Caswell said he took his anger and frustration out on the kittens because he was unable to access pornography, to which he was addicted, and because of a baby at home that would not go to sleep. The stray kitten that Caswell was abusing when another shelter employee walked in and discovered his behavior survived and was named “Justice” in honor of the role she served. Anyone who wants to write to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to protest Caswell’s parole can send their letter to the Parker County District Attorney’s Office, 117 Fort Worth Highway, Weatherford, Texas 76086, Swain said. “At the beginning of this case, we received a lot of letters and emails encouraging us to seek a lengthy prison sentence for Mr. Caswell,” Swain said. “Now that he has that long prison sentence, I would imagine we will have a lot of people reaching out to ask the prison system to keep him incarcerated. It makes sense for us to collect those and send them to parole authorities in one or multiple large batches.” Weatherford is about 60 miles west of Dallas and 30 miles west of Fort Worth.
Texas Lotto San Antonio Express-News Weatherford Police Department WFAA TV Texas Board Of Pardons And Paroles Gabriel Skyler Caswell Jeff Swain Craig Towson Dustin Deel Ryan Whyte Weatherford Parker County Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter Dallas Texas Fort Worth Fort Worth Highway Towson
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