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Michael Patrick Stackhouse is followed by his attorney Jame Milinowski as he leaves the Kent County Circuit Court on Oct. 7.

(Barton Deiters | MLive.com)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A Cedar Springs man does not dispute that he killed a cat by stomping on its head twice in front of an angry crowd that included small children.

But Michael Patrick Stackhouse says his actions were not cruel - they were an act of mercy to end the suffering of a mortally wounded animal.

Testimony began Tuesday, Oct. 7, in the Kent County Circuit Court trial where a jury heard about the incident on April 11 in the Cedar Springs Mobile Estates.

Related: Man accused of killing cat in front of children rejects plea deal that would keep him out of prison

Trina Belcher said she had been petting the cat named Luna and watched as her 6-year-old grandson and a nearby puppy played with the affectionate animal as it wandered around the neighborhood.

“That cat did nothing but play,” said Blecher. The cat’s owner, Christine Deady, said the indoor-outdoor cat was "just a lover."

A few minutes after petting the cat, Belcher said she heard a man roar then saw the cat flying through the air at least 20 feet. Belcher said when the cat hit the ground, its eye was bulging out and its tongue lolled out from what appeared to be a broken jaw.

Belcher said she saw Stackhouse walk across the street to the mobile home park office and then returned a couple minutes later to where the cat had stumbled a few feet.

“I said ‘How can you do this to an innocent animal?’” Belcher testified.

She said Stackhouse answered loudly “Do you think I’m scared? You want me to f-ing do it?’”

She said that Stackhouse, wearing black boots, stomped the cat, causing the animal to spasm violently. Then he delivered another stomp to the feline’s head.

Neighbor Larry “Bud” McDaniel said after he saw the injured animal on the ground he said to Stackhouse “I wish you’d put it out of its misery.”

Neighbors said a crown of about 15 to 20 people had gathered, including children who were expressing horror at what they had seen.

Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Gerard Faber showed the jury graphic photos of the cat, bloodied and battered with its eye protruding.

Faber and defense attorney James Milanowski both agree that the cat entered through an open door of the mobile home where Stackhouse lived with his wife and infant son, as well as two dogs.

Milanowski told the jury that Stackhouse’s wife is allergic to cats and that the presence of the feline caused a ruckus among the animals.

Stackhouse then chased the cat through the mobile home and captured it using a blanket.

Milanowski said in the act of capturing the cat, he accidentally bumped the cat against a wall. Faber said the defendant violently slammed the cat against the wall, hard enough to cause severe injuries, before he threw it in the air from the front door of his home to the pavement yards away.

Milanowski said the injuries to the cat were the result of an accident.

“Disposing of the cat is an act of mercy,” Milanowski said. The attorney said killing the cat was done at the suggestion of gathered neighbors.

“The evidence will show this was not an accident,” Faber told the jury. “You will decide if the killing was justified.”

Stackhouse, 35, is charged with animal cruelty causing death. As a two-time previous felony offender, his potential maximum penalty increases from four to as much as eight years in prison, if convicted.

Testimony is expected to continue Wednesday with defense witnesses including Stackhouse’s wife, who called Cedar Springs Police after the cat was killed because she was in fear of the angry crowd of neighbors gathered outside her home.

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.5