Man charged in dead puppy case now facing child battery charge

A 24-year-old Greencastle man, already facing charges he killed his girlfriend's puppy for chewing on his Air Jordan sneakers, has now been charged with striking a four-year-old child.

Kenneth J. Collins, 402 Howard St., had a not-guilty plea entered on his behalf Monday afternoon in Putnam Superior Court in the new case. The latest charge against Collins is battery resulting in bodily injury, a Class D felony because it allegedly involved a person younger than 14.

The latest incident occurred on Thursday, March 28, when Collins allegedly smacked the bare buttocks of a four-year-old boy at a Castlebury Drive apartment. The whipping resulted in bruises still visible on the child at least one hour and 20 minutes afterward, according to Greencastle Police.

The child's father took the boy to the Greencastle Police Department after picking him up from the apartment Thursday afternoon. The father had received a call from the boy's mother to pick him up "because he was being bad and a guy by the name of Kenny had spanked (him)."

Upon examining the child, Capt. Mike Hanlon found palm prints, redness and bruising.

The boy's mother later told police that while she and her children were at another woman's apartment, Collins, a friend of the tenant, told the group of children to pick up toys from the living room floor. When the child said no, Collins spanked him.

When the child began to kick and scream, the mother said, Collins picked the boy up, held him by his ankles and smacked him two or three more times.

She said the boy continued to kick and scream, at which point Collins took him into another room, pulled down his pants and spanked him again.

The mother said she then told Collins to stop, that punishing the boy was one thing, but not to pull his pants down and do so.

Both mother and child said Collins struck the boy's bare bottom four times.

When Hanlon, accompanied by Officer Darrel Bunten and Reserve Officer Jeremiah Jackson, went to arrest Collins, he protested, saying "The mother was standing right there and gave me permission to smack the kid's (expletive)."

When later interviewed at the Putnam County Jail, Collins told Hanlon the same, stating the mother had twice said, "If you need to, smack his (expletive)."

Besides this, Collins' account matched those of the mother and child regarding both the whippings holding the boy upside down. Collins additionally told police the child had punched him in the genitals while hanging upside down.

Upon receiving the information, Hanlon explained to Collins that he is not a parent or guardian to the boy, nor did he really know the child, so it was not his position to administer punishment.

As a Class D felony, the battery resulting in bodily injury charge is punishable by up to three years in prison and $10,000 fine.

Because Collins was out on $500 cash bond in the animal cruelty case, his arrest Thursday resulted in a petition to revoke that bond.

Deputy Prosecutor James Ensley asked that the defendant be held without bond as is the court's practice when a criminal charge is filed against someone while they are out on bond.

Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges ordered Collins held without bond in the animal cruelty case and entered the not-guilty plea for him in the battery case.

"Can I get out to go to work?" Collins asked the judge, saying he has a fast-food job in Greencastle.

"No," Judge Bridges responded quickly and concisely. "That's one of the 'biggies' with being out on bond. You can't get another charge."

Collins, who will be represented in both cases by court-appointed counsel Scott Adams, is due to return to court April 10 for a pretrial conference.

He is also awaiting a pretrial conference in the animal cruelty case, which stems from an incident last Aug. 12 when City Police were called to a Castlebury apartment after a neighbor reported hearing a dog being beaten. The witness later reportedly observed a dead dog on the back porch of a residence occupied by Collins and girlfriend Heather Danielle Burger.

Collins is charged with cruelty to an animal resulting in death, or more specifically, "knowingly or intentionally beating a dog or vertebrate animal."

The nine-month-old puppy was already dead by the time police officers arrived on the scene, their report notes.

Court records indicate Collins became upset with the dog because it had been chewing on a pair of his Air Jordan sneakers, as well as shoes belonging to Burger's daughter.

Collins told police he "punched the dog in the stomach one time," and said the dog "began to yelp" and ran under the couch.

He also told police when he pulled the dog out from under the furniture, he noticed it "having trouble breathing" with blood coming out of its mouth.

Officer Eric Vaughan asked Collins to show him the shoes on which the animal had been chewing.

"As I looked over the two pairs of shoes," Vaughan noted, "I observed very minimal damage to the back of one (shoe) of each pair."

Animal cruelty, a Class A misdemeanor, is punishable by up to a year in prison and a $5,000 fine.