UPDATE: Animal rights attorney says Thompson's prison-less sentence 'shocks the conscience'

LANSING, MI -- After about a year of court hearings and despite admitting to killing more than a dozen dogs, Andrew Thompson will avoid incarceration.

Ingham Circuit Judge Paula Manderfield on Wednesday sentenced Thompson to five years of probation, as well as 400 hours of community service. Thompson, a 24-year-old former Michigan State University medical school student, must also have no contact with animals, remain in psychological treatment, work at least 30 hours per week and pay several thousands of dollars in fines and restitution, Manderfield ruled.

Prosecutors requested a two- to four-year prison stay for Thompson, but Manderfield elected otherwise, saying she found no reason or benefit to imprisonment.

Manderfield also sentenced Thompson to one year in the Ingham County Jail with credit for 107 days already served. The judge suspended the remaining balance of his jail term pending successful completion of probation.

in April

to three felony charges of animal killing or torture. Prosecutors dismissed nine other counts of the same charge in exchange for his plea. A conviction on one of the charges is punishable by up to four years in prison, but sentences for multiple convictions must be served concurrently, Michigan law stipulates.

Authorities said Thompson killed dogs -- all small Italian greyhounds -- while he lived at apartments in Okemos and East Lansing.

Thompson, of Arizona, allegedly told Animal Control officials

-- including throwing them to the ground or against the wall, grabbing them by the neck or beating them -- over the course of several months in 2011.

in October after four months behind bars. He posted 10 percent of his $50,000 bond, which had been lowered from $1 million by Manderfield. He had been wearing a GPS tethering device since bonding out.

Thompson was suspended by MSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine on June 23, a day before charges against him were authorized.

Follow Brandon Howell on Twitter: @BHowellMLive. Email him at

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