Law Student Pleads Not Guilty in Strip Bird Case | Crime

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- An attorney pleaded not guilty on behalf of a University of California, Berkeley, law student facing felony animal torture and killing charges in the beheading last October of an exotic bird at a Las Vegas Strip resort.

Attorney Michael Pariente said Monday that Justin Alexander Teixeira intends to fight the charges stemming from the Oct. 12 decapitation of the helmeted guineafowl in a wildlife habitat exhibit at the Flamingo Las Vegas.

Pariente says he intends to deal with the case in court, not in the media.

The 24-year-old Teixeira wasn't present.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Bill Kephart set an April 24 evidentiary hearing.

Another Berkeley student, 25-year-old Eric Cuellar pleaded guilty Jan. 10 to a misdemeanor charge of instigating an act of cruelty to an animal.