Plea Deal Reached In Buena Vista Animal Cruelty Case
A Buena Vista woman pled guilty to one count of animal cruelty against a dog resulting in death last Monday, two days before she was set to stand trial.
Tamara Miller, 37, of Buena Vista was indicted by a Rockbridge County grand jury last May on three felony counts of animal cruelty against a dog resulting in death, a class six felony which carries a sentence of between one and five years for each count.
Miller was sentenced to four years, all of which was suspended, for one count as part of a plea agreement with the commonwealth’s attorney’s office, with the other two charges being dismissed.
She will be on supervised probation for four years and will need to be on good behavior for four years as well. She is “banned for life” from owning any pets and must pay $863 in court costs.
The charges resulted from a search of the property in October of 2024.
During an evidentiary hearing in February, Deputy Cody Cornelison with the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office testified that he went to Miller’s home in Buena Vista to serve papers for an unrelated civil case on the morning of Oct. 14, 2024.
While on the way to the home, he was contacted by central dispatch and informed that an anonymous caller had requested a welfare check of the animals on Miller’s property, with the caller indicating that she did not believe Miller had been home in several days.
Cornelison testified that he knocked on the front door of Miller’s house and received no answer. After taping the papers he was there to serve to her front door, Cornelison walked to a side door, noting that a light over the door was on and there was a car in the driveway on that side of the house, to make another attempt at contacting Miller. While on the porch in front of the side door, Cornelison testified that he saw what appeared to be a blanket with flies on it lying on the ground near the house and what appeared to be a dog’s paw sticking out from underneath it.
Cornelison testified that he walked to the back of the house and saw dog kennels in the backyard. Upon approaching them, he saw what appeared to be a dog lying in one of the kennels. It did not respond to him, nor did the dog under the blanket. At that point, Cornelison testified that he obtained warrants to further search the property, which resulted in the charges.
