Sheriff's Department Arrests One on Animal Cruelty Charge

August 18, 2017 - Shelby County Sheriff Willis Blackwell reports that on August 2, 2017, Weeks and Ashley Crawford contacted Investigator Fears at SCSO to request assistance in locating their dog, Marucci, a French Mastiff that had gone missing or possibly stolen. The Crawford’s stated that they had been out of town until late night of August 1, 2017 and had only learned of their dog being missing at that point.

When the Crawfords went out of town for vacation, Marucci was able to get out of the fence and wander the neighborhood. The dog ended up in a neighbor’s yard and the neighbor posted on Facebook looking for the owners, or someone who could take the dog because she could not care for it. Preslie Nichols, 26, of Timpson responded and witness statements show that Nichols picked the dog up from the neighbor on July 26, 2017, to which Nichols confirmed.

When Nichols was first questioned, on August 2, 2017, she stated that the dog was run over and she had found the dog in the woods when she went in search of the source of a dead animal smell. Nichols told Investigators that she lied about the dog running off because she did not want to be responsible for the cost of the dog because it had died.

Investigator Fears and Brown were able to locate the dog and informed the Crawford’s so that they could retrieve the animal if they wanted, for burial.

After investigating the case and reviewing several witness statements, it was found that Nichols had tied the dog out, in a sunny part of the yard with no water or shade for better part of the day, beginning at about 10-11am and lasting till late evening, with one witness stating that he could hear the dog panting and in distress at around 12pm, but assumed the owner would be back shortly.

When Nichols was confronted with the new information, Nichols did confirm that she picked the dog up the evening of July 26 and that she had tied the dog up outside on July 27 for approximately three hours in temperatures reaching 93 degrees and the humidity reaching 94%, but claimed there was shade and water, despite witness statements claiming otherwise. Nichols stated that she had left her home at about 12pm to go to Nacogdoches to watch a movie and had returned around 3pm and the dog was dead. Nichols then dragged the dog with a four wheeler to the woods located next to her house.

Nichols was arrested on August 16, 2017 for Animal Cruelty (MA) for failing to care for the dog adequately or to make specific accommodations for the dog resulting in its death.

Nichols was arraigned by JP1 Melissa Crouch on August 16, 2017 and was released with a $2,500 PR bond.