A man who took part in animal-rights activists' raids on two Salt Lake County mink farms has been sentenced to two years in the Salt Lake County Jail.
Brandon Mitchener, 22, also was ordered by 3rd District Judge Stephen Henriod to pay a share of the $398,630 loss incurred by the Holt and Beckstead mink ranches.Beckstead was raided June 22, 1996, and Holt was raided the following July 17.
The vandals opened cages, cut fences and released thousands of animals.
The bulk of the ranches' losses were not in the animals themselves. Most of them were recovered. But breeding information accumulated over decades was lost. Each mink's cage carries a card with that animal's pedigree and life history. The animals themselves are not tagged.
Mitchener, who pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree felony burglary, was the third defendant to be sentenced in the raids.
Clinton Colby Ellerman, 21, received a two-year jail sentence last year. Kevin Clark, 22, got a similar sentence in March but was released from jail after six months. Prosecutors said Clark was instrumental in bringing charges against the others.
Jacob Lymon Kenison, 20, has pleaded guilty to two third-degree felonies and will be sentenced Dec. 7. Kenison was sentenced last year to 16 months in a federal prison for illegally acquiring an assault rifle. Kenison received a concurrent sen-tence from a state-court judge after pleading guilty to participating in a 1995 fire-bombing of Tandy Leather in Murray.
Also charged in the mink-farm raids are Sean Albert Gautschy, 23, who is facing trial on six felonies; Adam Troy Peace, 21, who is wanted on a $100,000 arrest warrant; and Alexander David Slack, 23, who has a scheduling hearing Nov. 23.
Mitchener's attorney, Larry Keller, said Mitchener was different from the others because, after the mink farm raids, he left the group.
Prosecutor Ernest Jones said other defendants also have disassociated themselves from the Animal Liberation Front after facing charges.
The ALF is a radical underground group believed responsible for more than 40 cases of vandalism, fire bombings and other terrorism at Wasatch Front leather shops, meat plants and mink farms since 1995, according to police.