No jail time for Cheney couple accused of animal cruelty

A Cheney couple accused of mistreating about 20 animals, including horses and a llama, won’t go to prison unless authorities find more evidence of animal cruelty on their property.

Terri Marlin, 53, and Thomas Marlin, 55, each pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree animal cruelty, a gross misdemeanor, Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court. Judge Michael Price suspended their two-year sentences, meaning the Marlins won’t be incarcerated unless they violate terms of a plea deal.

“My concern is not that you get time in jail or pay a lot of money,” Price said before handing down the decision. “My concern is the welfare of the animals and making sure that no more harm will come to them.”

The Marlins racked up 17 charges apiece in August 2014, when animal protection officers seized two horses, one llama, seven dogs, seven cats and three kittens from their property on South Cross Road. Those charges included first-degree animal cruelty, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

The charges were reduced partly because the Marlins, reeling from health issues and tragic events, did not have the resources to properly care for the animals, attorneys said. During the past two years, they said, Thomas Marlin suffered two heart attacks, Terri Marlin had knee surgery that limited her mobility, their 30-year-old son died in a car crash and their 16-year-old daughter, who usually tends to the animals, suffered a serious arm injury.

“The state does not believe that Mr. or Mrs. Marlin were ever deliberately cruel to animals,” Deputy Prosecutor Dale Nagy said. “We believe that the Marlins tried to keep more animals than they could properly care for.”

The condition of the animals was discovered when three very thin horses were taken to the Cheney Rodeo Grounds during evacuations for the 2014 Watermelon Hill fire near Cheney. After examining the Marlins’ property, authorities said animals were being confined in an unsafe manner, water troughs and pens weren’t being cleaned, and dogs and cats were covered in fleas.

Some horses had hooves that were overgrown and cracking. The horse in the worst condition, an Appaloosa mare, was described in court documents as emaciated with prominent ribs and hips.

The Marlins were the subject of at least four animal welfare complaints prior to the one in 2014.

In August 2010, an animal protection officer described several dogs on their property as “skinny and deformed” after a couple complained the Marlins were operating an illegal kennel at their residence on West Cameron Road. In April 2011, a neighbor complained that a dog belonging to the Marlins, then living on South Granite Lake Road, had bitten him.

In December 2011, they were cited for having an illegal kennel but all the animals except an injured emu were in good health at that time, according to court documents. Criminal charges were dismissed in 2013 as the result of a plea deal after the Marlins completed a probationary period with no new criminal charges. Another complaint about the conditions of animals on the Cross Road property was made in December 2012, but the Marlins refused then to let an animal control officer onto the property.

Judge Price also capped the number of animals the Marlins can keep on their property as part of their sentence.