The jury trial for the man charged with starving a pit bull to death has been pushed back into next year. 28 year old Thomas Arender was back in Wabash County Circuit Court this morning for a pre-trial conference ahead of his scheduled October 7th jury trial.
But, Judge Christopher Weber cited conflicts with previously scheduled jury trials in Crawford County for the need to push Arender’s trial back. After the state and defense agreed to the delay, Weber set the trial for January 6th with pre-trial hearings set for November 12th and December 17th.
State’s Attorney Cassandra Goldman said she had already exchanged witness and evidence lists with court-appointed defense counsel William Easton.
Arender faces a Class 4 felony charge of aggravated cruelty in connection to the starvation death of a pit bull earlier this year. As with his other court appearances, Arender was greeted today by members of the Wabash County Animal Shelter showing up to support the memory of the one year old pit bull named Zeus.
Arender remains free on a $10,000 bond. A condition of that bond is that he surrendered any pets and not oversee the care of any pets.
