A former reserve police officer has been sentenced for the death of his K9. As reported by WYFF News, 35-year-old Clinton Ellis, who worked in Laurel, Indiana, was sentenced after pleading guilty to animal cruelty for the death of his former canine partner, Blade, who as discovered frozen in a trash bag just over a year ago.

The allegations

A necropsy on the dog’s body revealed that he had died from starvation and intestinal foreign bodies. A tipster alerted the authorities to the K9’s body and told them that he had witnessed the dog “deteriorating” over the course of several months.

When Ellis was confronted about the deceased dog’s deterioration, he claimed that Blade looked no different to him between the time that the dog started living with him, and the day that the dog died.

As reported by WTHR news, Ellis had already been serving jail time because he was charged for unlawfully seizing guns during the time that he was employed as a reserve officer.

The plea deal

Ellis pleaded guilty to the charges resulting from the situation – though he was found guilty of one count of striking or interfering with a law enforcement animal and one count of cruelty to an animal, he was sentenced to just one year in jail, and 311 days of that sentence were suspended.

(booking photo of Ellis via WYFF News)