GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — His dog probably died from eating rat poison in the basement.
That's what Trey Cummings told investigators after they got a tip from a relative he may have beaten his dog to death in January.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed against him, Grand Rapids Police officers responded to that tip in the 800 block of Geneva Avenue SE.
There's where officers found a 3-year-old bulldog mix dead in the backyard. Those officers said they spotted blood around the dog's body, along the home's outdoor siding and in the basement.
Cummings denied that he beat his dog to death and also denied intentionally harming the animal, according to court documents.
He speculated to questioning officers the dog may have died from ingesting rat poison in the basement.
Authorities arrested him that day, and he bonded out of jail the next day. Police went back to the house and searched the home with Cumming's consent, court documents detail.
They found the dog's body in the trash. Kent County Animal Control officers took the dog's body and transported it to the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for a necropsy.
The doctor performing the necropsy said she found numerous subcutaneous hematomas that would be consistent with blunt-force trauma to the dog.
Investigators also ran a toxicology analysis to see if a rodenticide anticoagulant could be found. No poison was found in the dog, the probable cause affidavit said.
The Kent County Prosecutor's Office approved a felony charge of killing/torturing animals against Cummings in March.
Cummings pleaded guilty to that charge and learned his sentence in July.
Judge Mark Trusock in the 17th Circuit Court sentenced Cummings to six months in the Kent County Correctional Facility and two years of probation. He was given 14 days of jail credit.
