USA TODAY

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge has sentenced a 26-year-old California man to 16 years in prison for killing 21 cats, some of which he lured from people’s homes.

Robert Roy Farmer pleaded guilty last year to 21 felony counts of animal cruelty and one count each of misdemeanor battery and being under the influence.

The cats began mysteriously disappearing from San Jose’s Cambrian Park neighborhood in September 2015. Then cats began turning up dead, the Mercury News of San Jose reported Friday.

Farmer was found Oct. 8, 2015 in a Home Depot parking lot, sleeping in his car with a dead cat curled up in the center console. In his car, police found chunks of fur, blood, fur-covered gloves and a hunting knife.