BOONVILLE, Ind. − The mother of convicted serial animal abuser Shayna Burko pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to her own animal cruelty charges, but there was no sentencing as yet.
Kimberley Burko, 62, pleaded to three counts of cruelty to an animal, a Level 6 felony because she has a previous conviction on the same offense.
But Dennis Brinkmeyer, Burko’s attorney, requested a pre-sentence investigation report be done before sentencing, and Warrick County Circuit Judge Greg A. Granger agreed.
Shayna Burko was sentenced to four years in prison in Granger’s courtroom last month on her third animal cruelty conviction. Prosecutors have said Shayna Burko abused and neglected at least 70 animals over nearly a decade and left many of them to suffer slow, agonizing deaths.
After Tuesday’s hearing, Kimberley Burko said her daughter “is not a monster.”
“She is a sweetheart, she really is,” Burko said outside the courtroom. “She gets overwhelmed, and then she kind of runs from the situation.”
Burko recalled an incident in 2023 when she was riding a horse, and the horse threw her off. She was badly injured.
“She (Shayna Burko) just kind of left me there,” Burko said. “She didn’t know what to do. She felt overwhelmed, so she left me (with the horse).
“That’s what she does. You know, she can’t handle things.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Mother of convicted serial animal abuser pleads guilty to own charges
Reporting by Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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By Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press | USA TODAY Network
