Monkey killer: 7-year sentence for Boise man

Monkey killer 7-year sentence: Michael Watkins was sentenced to 7 years for breaking into a Boise zoo and killing a monkey. But he will likely be eligible for release after 9-12 months.

A man convicted of breaking into a Boise zoo last fall and brutally beating to death one of two Patas monkeys was sentenced to up to 7 years in prison. But he has been ordered to spend nine to 12-months in a treatment program at a state prison.

Michael Watkins, 22, was sentenced Thursday for his role in the Nov. 17 crime that caused shock and outrage in Idaho's capitol city and beyond.

Watkins pleaded guilty in March to felony attempted grand theft for illegally entering the zoo, built in a city park a few blocks from the downtown, and animal cruelty, a misdemeanor under state law.

Fourth District Judge Lynn G. Norton rejected defense attorney requests that Watkins deserved probation and would be punished enough by the shame of being "forever known as the man who killed the monkey at Zoo Boise."

Instead, Norton said she wanted a punishment that fits the crime, and Watkins was sentenced Thursday to serve up to 7 years in prison for attempted grand theft. But the judge placed him on retained jurisdiction, meaning he will first serve a nine- to 12-month treatment program that could make him eligible for release afterward. This was a sentence that the judge said could allow the young father of a seven-month old child to turn his life around.

Prosecutors say Watkins, fueled by a night of excessive drinking at downtown bars with a friend, broke into the zoo with a plan to capture one of the monkeys. Once inside, he manipulated a lock to get into the primate enclosure and removed the Patas monkey by wrapping it in his jacket and tried throwing it over a fence, according to court records.

But the monkey resisted, tried running away and a chase through a small section of the zoo ensued. Ultimately, Watkins lost control of the situation and resorted to violence, kicking the monkey and clubbing it multiple times in the head and upper body and leaving it to die from those injuries, Ada County Deputy Attorney Shawna Dunn said in court Thursday.

The monkey's death stirred shock and outrage in the community, but also traumatized zoo employees who tended to the Patas pair, zoo officials said. It also caused concern about the welfare of the survivor because Patas monkeys are extremely social and the prospect of having it live alone prompted zoo administrators to find a new home or others to adopt. Ultimately, the Rosamund Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York, donated two companions in December.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Monkey killer: 7-year sentence for Boise man
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0518/Monkey-killer-7-year-sentence-for-Boise-man
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe