A Portland man was convicted Tuesday on two counts of animal abuse after authorities said he punched two of his girlfriend’s cats – and broke the jaw of one – then abandoned them in the woods.

Dillan William Bragg, 24, grabbed his girlfriend’s cat, Junior, on Dec. 3, 2016, and began hitting him and telling him to die, according to a probable cause affidavit.

When Bragg’s girlfriend, Launa Dickerson, tried to intervene, Bragg stopped her by putting his hand on her throat, the affidavit said.

Dickerson left the house and went next door, but saw Bragg leaving the house with Junior and a backpack in the direction of the woods near the Troutdale residence, the court documents said. Bragg later told Dickerson during a phone call where to find the cat, and she discovered Junior in the woods bleeding inside the backpack.

According to the affidavit, Dickerson told investigators she took the cat to the VCA Southeast Portland Animal Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured mandible. Veterinarians sedated him and placed a wire in his jaw.

Bragg told officers that he woke up from a “night terror and started whaling on Junior” and then took him into the woods in a backpack.

Dickerson also reported that Bragg had beaten another cat, Molly, the week before and also abandoned her in the woods, according to the affidavit.

Bragg initially denied the claim, then later admitted to hitting Molly, saying he was “in and out of reality” and remembered carrying her by the scruff to the woods where he let her go, the affidavit said.

Bragg pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 18 months of probation and mental health evaluation. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Amy Baggio also prohibited Bragg from owning an animal for five years.

-- Piper McDaniel; amcdaniel@oregonian.com; 503-221-4307; @Piperamcdaniel

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