More than 30 months after it happened, a man admitted he killed a woman’s dog in Butte and was given a one-year suspended sentence.

As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, a felony aggravated animal cruelty charge against 46-year-old Joel Brooks Thornton was reduced to a misdemeanor that carries a maximum one-year jail term.

Thornton pleaded guilty to that Wednesday and had already served 346 days in jail, so he was given credit for those and now has about two weeks left on the suspended sentence. He’s not allowed to own an animal during that time.

District Judge Robert Whelan also ordered Thornton to pay $531 in restitution to Butte-Silver Bow’s Animal Services Department, which responded to the incident after a police officer found the dog lying dead in the snow along some railroad t

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