The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned a Muncie, Indiana, man’s conviction for bestiality last week on the basis of insufficient evidence.
Andy Allen Shinnock, 36, was found guilty — but mentally ill — on one bestiality charge in April 2016. He had previous convictions for child molestation in 2002 and 2012.
On the morning of August 19, 2015, Shinnock’s friend, Paul Moore, came home from work to the house he shared with Shinnock in Muncie, according to court documents.
Chinook called his dogs — a male Labrador retriever and great Dane mix named Cosmo and a female pit bull named Baby Girl — so he could take them outside to go to the bathroom.
Normally, the dogs would sit and wait to greet Moore when he came home in the mornings. This morning, they didn’t.
Only Cosmo came running when Moore called, which was unusual. After searching the house for Baby Girl, Moore went to Shinnock’s room. When he opened the door, Baby Girl came out and hid beneath the couch.
When Shinnock emerged from his room, he was wearing only a T-shirt and boxers. Shinnock’s “erect penis caught Moore’s attention”, court documents state. The floor of the house was covered in dog feces. Moore had never had problems with the dogs defecating inside before.
After taking the dogs outside to go to the bathroom, Moore confronted Shinnock and asked him why Baby Girl had been shut inside his room. When Moore pressed further, Shinnock admitted he had intercourse with Baby Girl. Moore recorded their conversation on his cell phone and called police shortly thereafter.
Once the police arrived and questioned Shinnock, he admitted to having sex with Baby Girl and continued to talk about it even after the detective read him the Miranda rights, according to court documents. The detective recorded Shinnock’s confession on a body camera. Cosmo and Baby Girl were taken to an animal shelter.
During his bench trial the following April, Shinnock’s parole agent testified and said Shinnock “had an intelligence level of about a 6-year-old.” She also said Shinnock was “low-functioning,” has “anger issues” and is “very sexually preoccupied.”
Although he was given an 18-month prison sentence, Shinnock had already completed the sentence in the time he’d spent in prison since his arrest.
In a unanimous decision, however, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned Shinnock’s bestiality conviction, reversing the conviction and remanding the case to trial court.
In the court opinion, Senior Judge John Sharpnack cited a lack of physical evidence as part of the reversal. In particular, Sharpnack stressed there was “neither evidence of physical injury to the dog’s sex organ nor any evidence of the condition of the dog’s sex organ.”
In essence, Sharpnack wrote there was no evidence outside of Shinnock’s own confession, and his confession alone did not constitute enough evidence to justify a conviction.
Eric Hoffman, Chief Deputy Prosecutor of the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office, said the State is considering its options to move forward, which include transferring the case to the Indiana Supreme Court. He gave little insight to the State’s attitude about the conviction being overturned.
“I can say I disagree with it,” Hoffman said. “That’s about all I can say.”
