Man sentenced in Cass City cat caper

CASS CITY — If Cass City’s Jon Wayne Finkbeiner could go back in time, it would be the day he shot and killed his neighbor’s cat last October.

That one pellet shot from an air gun cost Finkbeiner, 52, a lot.

First, the $2,258 in court fines and costs — plus $120 restitution to the neighbor/cat owner – he was ordered to pay by Tuscola County Circuit Court Judge Amy Grace Gierhart last week. He was charged with killing an animal.

Then, there are the terms of his one-year delayed sentence that ban him from even picking up an air gun, which is a problem when three-quarters of your annual income comes from doing repairs for air gun owners from across the U.S.

Also, he shot and killed the neighbor’s cat.

“It makes my dad sick to think about it today,” said Tim Finkbeiner, 23, son of Jon Wayne Finkbeiner. “We got rid of the gun. It upset him too much to have after what had happened.” (Read more)

(This story appeared originally in the July 2, 2016 print edition of The Tuscola County Advertiser and can be read online here.)