Justice Served: Tortoise Abuser to Serve Time

Teen will serve time after brutally torturing an autistic child's pet tortoise.

ByABC News
November 6, 2007, 1:02 PM

Nov. 6, 2007 — -- A teenager who tortured and mutilated the pet tortoise of an autistic boy was sentenced to nine months in jail and must give up his own animals.

Jose Antonio Mosqueda, 18, of Ventura, Calif., was sentenced Monday to five years of probation and ordered to pay $5,479 in restitution. He could have received up to three years in prison.

Bob, the 45-pound pet tortoise Mosqueda injured, was the pet of a local Ventura family for more than 10 years and was the only one able to coax 6-year-old autistic William Sullivan out of his shell.

"The tortoise was my son's link to the world," Dorothy Sullivan, William's mom, told ABCNEWS.com. "[William] was nonverbal and noncommunicative with the world -- including myself -- but for some reason at a very early age he could respond to the tortoise."

One day, "I walked downstairs and I heard my son carrying on a conversation with the tortoise," said Sullivan. Before that day, "my child had made no noise at all."

But on a summer night in July, Sullivan went to check on Bob before she went to bed, like she always did, and found the 25-year-old tortoise missing. She suspected immediately that he had been stolen.

Bob was stolen, stabbed and slashed with a knife. By the time Dorothy Sullivan found him he had also suffered a cracked shell.

William unfortunately saw Bob when he came home bloodied and near death, and became hysterical, said Sullivan.

"Bob was William's first mate," said Sullivan. "When Bob got sick, William was convinced he was going to die."

Mosqueda pleaded no contest in September to felony animal cruelty. His attorney said the defendant wrote apologies to the family, but the judge still rejected his request to reduce the felony count to a misdemeanor.

The teen was given 270 days in jail but credited with 156 days already served and for good conduct in jail. He will also have to surrender his pet iguana, dog and snake.

Bob the tortoise survived his injuries and is still living with the Sullivans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.