Former Animal Shelter Director Must Serve Full Term, Judge Says

In Rabun County, Lowanda “Peanut” Kilby must serve her full sentence.

On Tuesday, a judge denied her attorney Tim Healy’s motion to reduce the sentence of the former director of the Boggs Mountain Animal Shelter in Clayton.

Healy called the stiff sentence unfair and not in line with other sentences handed down for similar offenses.

“Given the statistics in Georgia in cases that are similar, the sentence is way too harsh,” Healy said.

Last spring Kilby was sentenced to 25 years with 15 to serve in a state prison after a Rabun County jury found her guilty on 60 counts of theft and racketeering in connection with her Lucky Dog/Lucky Cat program.

Under the program, Kilby had people donate money, sometimes hundreds of dollars, to ensure the pets they had given up to the shelter would not be put to sleep but instead, would be adopted into new homes.

But an employee whistle blower testified Kilby had actually euthanized the pets and pocketed the donation money to fund gambling trips to Cherokee Casino.

During her trial in May, several pet owners, including a couple from Toccoa, testified that Kilby lied to them, sending them emails or a note in the mail telling them their former pets had been adopted.

Healy said Tuesday he continues to prepare an appeal of Kilby’s original conviction in the hopes of getting a new trial.

“Right now we’re doing brief writing on a motion for a new trial,” Healy said Tuesday. “That has to be presented within 10 days of that argument date,  which was a few days ago.  Then after that, if the judge denies a motion for a new trial, we file a direct appeal with the Court of Appeals and present our enumerations of error that we contend were made during the trial.”

If that fails, Healy said he has another direction he plans to go.

“I think we’ve got some meritorious issues that we presented in the motion for a new trial and that will be presented in the direct appeal should the court deny our motion for a new trial,” he said.

So far, no date has been set for the judge to hear those motions for a new trial.

Charles Robertson, SKY104, contributed to this report