The Bronx Supreme Court building.
Photo via Google Maps
A 26-year-old Bronx man was sentenced to two years in jail after pleading guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with the death of a cat he had brought into his apartment, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said on Monday.
David Mosley, of East 198th Street in Bedford Park, was sentenced on Aug. 10 by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Laurence Bushing. He pleaded guilty to the charge on July 10 and was immediately remanded that day. Prosecutors said he will get credit for time served since he made his plea last month.
As part of his sentence, Mosley is banned from owning or harboring animals for 10 years.
“This defendant committed a crime that shocked and outraged the community,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. “For reasons known only to him, he tortured and killed a cat and then posted disturbing images of the dead animal on social media. He has been held accountable for what he did.”
Per the investigation, Mosley posted a photo on Instagram of himself with a live cat in Oct. 2025. Several days later, a photo was posted to the same account showing a cat lying motionless in what appeared to be a pool of blood.
Detectives searched the defendant’s apartment on Oct. 29 and found “dried biological material” on the floor. The ASPCA later determined that the matter was feline blood.
With assistance from the ASPCA, investigators were able to prove that the cat shown alive in the first social media post was the same animal shown in the pool of blood later on, prosecutors said.
Investigators were also able to get surveillance footage from Mosley’s apartment building that showed him carrying the cat into the building on Oct. 9 while it was alive, according to the prosecution. When detectives questioned Mosely, he said that he had found the cat after it had died, the DA’s office said.
This was Mosley’s only criminal case in the Bronx. According to some animal advocates, he is alleged to have killed the cat as part of a depraved ritualistic sacrifice — occurring days before Halloween.
“This deliberate infliction and prolonging of suffering reflects the sadistic mentality of cats being treated as objects where extreme violence is inflicted for personal enjoyment,” the group Feline Guardians said in a statement following Mosley’s guilty plea.
Clark thanked the NYPD and the ASPCA, including forensic veterinarian Dr. Laura Niestat, for their work on the case.