Man pleads guilty to animal cruelty in fatal puppy beating

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The man accused of beating a puppy to death on Christmas day has pleaded guilty to felony animal cruelty.

Christopher Simpson, 21, took a plea deal in New Hanover County court on Tuesday.

Before Simpson appeared in court, dozens of people who belong to the Facebook group, “Justice for Axel”, held a rally in front of the courthouse.

“He cold-blooded murdered this puppy. This innocent little animal,” group member, Tracy Bannon said.

The group is calling for tougher animal cruelty laws.

“Animals are living beings,” Bannon said. “We need to protect them as much as we can because they can’t protect themselves.”

Tammy Croom, who is part of the group, adopted Axel from New Hanover County Animal Services.

Simpson is the boyfriend of Croom’s daughter. He was left alone with the puppy while everyone else went to visit family on Christmas day. When they returned, they found the puppy’s body behind a shed in the backyard.

This afternoon, Croom stood in court and forgave Simpson for what he did. She said she hopes he can change and that he has learned from his mistakes.

In the meantime, Croom is working to make sure the punishment of what happened to her pup fits the crime.

“I’m pushing to have a database made for anybody that physically hurts, or harms an animal, that they have to register and that their animal rights be stripped from them,” Croom said.

Simpson received an additional 20 day sentence, followed by 3-years probation along with a series of assessments including a mental health assessment, substance abuse assessment and anger management treatment.

“The judge set precedent today,” group member, Joe Cina said. “The fact that this gentleman is going to have to go through anger management, he’s gonna have to go through all sorts of other assessments, the psychological assessment. Those are positives.”

While many pushing for tougher animal laws wanted more jail time for Simpson, they thought the sentencing was fair.

“He’s been in there for a while. He’s served some time already. So for the circumstances we would like to see more. But really it was reasonable. And we applaud the district attorney’s office, the judge for doing their job and putting things in place to protect a future incident,” Cina said.

Simpson is ordered to stay away from Croom’s home and cannot own pets while on probation. The judge said he has dogs of his own and “cruelty like that is of a psychopath.”