FARMINGTON, Utah — A Utah man has pleaded guilty to federal charges for uploading videos of himself torturing animals to YouTube.
The U.S. Attorney's Office's Utah District announced Monday that 20-year-old Samuel J. Webster pleaded guilty to "animal crushing" and "distribution of animal crush video." Crushing, in this case, is defined as an animal being "intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury, and is obscene."
Webster bought four guinea pigs from local pet stores in October and then posted 23 videos on YouTube showing himself torturing the animals, according to the charges filed last year.
Webster allegedly gave the videos titles such as “Guinea Pig Torture” and “Torture is Fun,” and commented on his own videos about wanting to kill and torture guinea pigs.
New details released with the announcement of his guilty plea state that he did kill at least one of the four animals, and he is even accused of "sexually coercing" one of them.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 11.
