A 35-year-old woman from Jacksonville, Nicole DeVilbiss, has been arrested on charges of conspiring to create and distribute “animal crush videos.” If convicted, she could face up to five years in federal prison.
In federal criminal law, animal crushing is defined as intentionally causing serious bodily harm to one or more non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians through methods such as crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling, or other forms of torture.
The arrest was made following an investigation into a group on a mobile phone application, where users were found to be arranging the production and sharing of videos that depicted the abuse of primates. The group chat focused on the abuse, torture, and death of monkeys of different ages. During the investigation, DeVilbiss was identified as one of the administrators of the group. It was discovered that she removed members from the group, commented on the abuse shown in the videos, and shared videos depicting the torture of primates.
The United States Attorney’s Office clarifies that a complaint is only a formal charge against a defendant and that every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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