Benjamin Briney found not guilty of felony animal cruelty trial begins for beating horse to death

Drew County prosecutors charged Benjamin Briney with the beating death of a Shetland pony. It took jurors just 45 minutes Wednesday to find Briney not guilty.

That morning, the judge told potential jurors the case wasn't about whether the animal was killed, it was about if it was tortured.

"Drew County needs some publicity; I don't think this is the best publicity for it but it doesn't surprise me," says dismissed potential juror Gwen Robinson.

The state says Briney beat the horse to death with a baseball bat. Sheriff's reports show the attack happened last August, hours after Arkansas' felony animal cruelty law took effect.

"To me, it's going to be a case of right or wrong and I don't think that there's a deer hunter out there or duck hunter or any other hunter, that doesn't have a limit on the humane treatment of an animal," says Drew County Deputy Prosecutor Zachary Vaughn.
Chris Briney says his brother is being used as an example.

"It's wrong. My little brother, he's not at all right in the head," says Chris Briney.

According to witnesses, the pony was being housed in Briney's neighborhood when it was attacked two separate times, possibly by dogs. The horse's owner Peggy Trantham says she talked to Briney and asked that he "handle it." She says she meant for Briney to nurse the horse.

The state says Briney took that statement as a cue to beat the horse to death with a bat. Briney, however, testified he thought he was doing all he could to keep the horse from suffering because he didn't have access to a gun.

"He felt the horse was suffering, so he put it out of its misery. Like I said, that's the way we was raised," says Chris Briney.
Briney admitted hitting the horse three times in the head. The jury had to decide if using a bat to put down a horse constitutes torture and decided it was not.

Briney was released Wednesday after the not guilty verdict. He'd been in jail since August.

In Arkansas, a conviction of aggravated animal cruelty can lead to a prison sentence of up to six years and a fine of $10,000.

Meanwhile, Vaughn says he's received a lot of calls and letters about this case. In contrast, last week he argued a case involving an infant burned by her father. Vaughn says he didn't get any calls or letters.