Sarasota woman who filmed raccoon burning alive avoids jail time

SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Sarasota woman who was found guilty of aggravated animal cruelty for filming a raccoon burning alive and posting the video on social media will avoid jail time.

Circuit Court Judge Donna M. Padar sentenced Alicia Kincheloe on Tuesday to two years of community control followed by three years of probation. She must also complete 45 days of the work offender program within 315 days.

Kincheloe must enroll in the Thinking for a Change course and an anger management course within 30 days. She must also get a mental health evaluation and pass it on the first attempt.

She will also have to perform 100 hours of community service, but not related to animals. She must also surrender any pets and will not be allowed to own any moving forward.

If Kincheloe fails to complete any of the programs, she will automatically be arrested and sentenced to 45 days in the Sarasota County jail.

Kincheloe was convicted in October of aggravated animal cruelty and tampering with evidence.

In court on Tuesday, Kincheloe read a letter that she had prepared before learning her fate.

“I want you to know me for my good in humanity and not my bad moment, so therefore as I address the court today in person, the very first thing I’d like to say — I’m truly sorry,” Kincheloe said. “I’m sorry for finding comedy and laughter, I’m sorry for my choice of words and extremely dark humor I had that day.”

Kincheloe said she was going through emotional things the day of the incident — getting her mother’s suicide letters she was waiting for and making decisions about getting a loved one some help.

“I know there’s no excuse to how I made things look that day,” Kincheloe said.

Kincheloe said all she can do is own up to her mistakes.

“This mistake has been by far the biggest lesson learned for me in my 31 years of existence,” she said. “I can also tell you that never, ever in a million years did I picture or dream of myself being the face of the world right now as a criminal, and it’s been eating me alive every second, every minute, every hour, every day, into weeks, months, going on to almost two years since the day I posted those two separate videos.”

Kincheloe said she hopes others can learn from her mistakes.

“Since this incident, I have chosen the path of God,” she said. “I have been baptized and created new. I have met some beautiful people along the way. I do see a therapist and a psychiatrist. I’ve taken some classes, willingly, not forced. I’ve spent every second with my kids and family as if it was going to be taken away from me.”

“I’m not trying to look for excuses, your honor, and reasoning for my behavior in that video I made that day, but I was really not in my right state of mind that day mentally and emotionally,” she said. “I was so hurt and angry and betrayed. I just wasn’t thinking at all, and I’m so sorry the world had to see me in that moment of darkness.”

She said she is no longer that person and is learning to grieve and handle her emotions.

“Within the last 15 months, I met the most broken version of myself, but it created the strongest version of myself,” Kincheloe said.

The state recommended a sentence of five years in prison. The defense attorney argued that the court process for a first-time offender such as Kincheloe is itself a punishment, and asked for no prison time, but community control instead.

Padar said she has tried homicides, manslaughters, and sexual abuse of children, and doesn’t believe the sentence the state was requesting was proportionate.

“It does not honestly make sense to the court, based upon my experience, the mitigating factors, the remorse that I sense from you, your lack of record,” Padar said. “It deserves punishment, there’s absolutely no question about that. It deserves punishment. But I don’t think the request was proportionate.”

“Because of what you did, both before and after in recording it and publicizing it, and putting it out to the world, and the texts that were exchanged in the aftermath, it wasn’t just one day for you. It was a series of days, and it wasn’t just one moment in time,” Padar said. “There was more to it than that, and it was a series of deliberate acts.”

“You sealed your own fate when it came to how the public will forever perceive you,” Padar said.

Padar said one of the consequences is that Kincheloe is now a convicted felon, meaning she can’t vote, can’t own a firearm, and she will have difficulty if she ever has to rent a place to live. She also may lose some licenses, including in the healthcare field.

“All of the hard work you’ve done is most likely jeopardized for good,” Padar said.

“It was a vicious act,” Padar said. “And in kind, you have been treated viciously by members of the public. And for whatever motivates them, I don’t understand that either.

In Aug. 2022, Kincheloe posted a video to social media showing a raccoon stuck inside of a dumpster behind a restaurant “not showing any signs of aggression,” the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said. In the second video, Kincheloe laughed as smoke wafted from the dumpster. The camera panned down, showing the charred remains of the racoon inside.

“Some people say throw an apple with bleach in there,” Kincheloe said in the video, which went viral. “We just toasted his a**. Who’s hungry?”

Kincheloe then pulled the dead raccoon out of the dumpster and disposed of the remains, officials said. She said the dumpster was smoldering and her and her father used a gas can filled with water to put out the flames. However, officials found that the gas can was filled with something flammable.

“The convicted felon status and how this has gone out to the world will follow you for the rest of your life,” Padar said.

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