Dundalk man sentenced to 9 years in connection with animal cruelty case

Friday, June 11, 2021
David Collins, WBAL-TV 11

A Dundalk man is headed to jail for nine years in connection with an animal cruelty case involving his roommate's pets.

Home surveillance footage of the abuse and torture sealed the guilty plea. The prosecution played the video for the judge only but everyone in the courtroom could hear the animals crying.

Prosecutors admit if it were not for the grainy surveillance video, Eric Philip Conway would not have pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and abuse charges.

When asked if the state believed there was a motive behind the incident, Assistant Baltimore County State’s Attorney Adam Drew Lippe said: "He's a mean person, just flat out cruelty. There's no reason for this. He knew the animals, it wasn't something new to him. And he was able to do whatever he wanted to do."

Conway lived with homeowner Michelle Wheeler off and on. He would help around the house, including feeding and taking care of her pets. But last November, he was caught on video killing a cat and kitten and torturing other pets.

Prosecutors said Conway used the lit end of cigarettes to burn some of the animals.

"One kitten he brought up to his mouth and burned the cat and threw it to the ground, picked it up, went to the garbage disposal, washed it, turned the garbage disposal on," Wheeler said.

His roommate said other video showed him emptying a cat carrier looking for other vulnerable pets.

"The mother was in there. Took a kitten out and said, 'I don't care about you, I never did,' and just threw him to the ground, and I have a slab concrete floor," Wheeler said.

Wheeler's German shepherd survived a strange act of abuse.

"The one dog he burned with a cigarette. My other that was a German shepherd, who was a rescue, I haven't had her for that long, he threw darts at her," she said.

Conway apologized to the court and to Wheeler. In court testimony, Conway said he doesn't remember anything because he was high on drugs. He was horrified when told about what he did.

Wheeler said this isn't the first time she declined to accept his apology.

"He called me the day after he was arrested, picked up on his warrant to apologize to me. And I said, 'I'm sorry, but no. How would you like your face in a garbage disposal?' And hung up," she said.

The trauma Wheeler suffered briefly cost her job. She said it took months to regain the trust of the surviving animals.

"Nine years, I’m just praying a lot and thank God that I did call police and got them involved and kept pursuing that and making the officers re-watch the video, saying, 'Please look at this,'" Wheeler said.

The judge sentenced Conway to nine years in prison, the max under state law. At some point, he will enter a drug treatment program.