A woman was sentenced on one case of animal cruelty and pleaded not guilty to another case of similar nature Friday morning in Zanesville Municipal Court.

On May 3, a dozen dogs were rescued from a Zanesville home after the Muskingum County Dog Warden and Adoption Center received a call about two dead dogs in the basement of the home with a third malnourished dog eating their bodies.

All 12 dogs were in Sharilinea Newell’s home on Corwin Avenue, although she only claimed ownership of two of the animals.

Newell appeared in court Friday, May 31, for charges relating to the two dogs she directly owned. Earlier this month, she pleaded no contest to two second-degree misdemeanor charges of cruelty to companion animals.

“The bedroom that her two dogs were in (had) feces and the smell was really bad in there,” Muskingum County Humane Officer Carolyn Hughes said. “But her dogs were healthy. The rest of them, can’t say that.”

Hughes told Judge Thomas Mills, who was filling in for Judge William Joseph, that the two dogs in question were healthy, although the environment they were living in was “horrendous.”

Newell was ordered to pay $200 in fines plus court costs, as well as serve 30 days in jail with 20 of those days suspended. The judge also stated that she was not to own or possess animals for the next two years.

The remaining 10 dogs were removed from the home on May 3.

Newell was also arraigned on nine other charges Friday morning stemming from the same incident. She pleaded not guilty.

Mills said she faces 18 months in jail on those charges.

Trial is set for July 9 in the new case.

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