SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (SNN TV) – The Sarasota woman convicted of setting a raccoon on fire and filming it may serve no jail time, according to the Sarasota Clerk of Courts website.
Alicia Kincheloe, 30, was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in the Sarasota County Jail.
However, if she successfully serves 45 days in the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Offender’s Work Program within 315 days of her sentencing, she will serve no jail time.
Following the work program, or the jail time, Kincheloe will serve 3 years of probation.
In October, a jury found Kincheloe guilty of aggravated animal cruelty and tampering with evidence after she posted a video online of her burning the raccoon in a dumpster in August 2022.
According to WFLA, in court on Tuesday, Kincheloe read a letter that she had prepared before learning her fate.
“I want you to know me for my good in humanity and not my bad moment, so therefore as I address the court today in person, the very first thing I’d like to say — I’m truly sorry,” Kincheloe said. “I’m sorry for finding comedy and laughter, I’m sorry for my choice of words and extremely dark humor I had that day.”
Kincheloe said she was going through emotional things the day of the incident — getting her mother’s suicide letters she was waiting for and making decisions about getting a loved one some help.
“I know there’s no excuse to how I made things look that day,” Kincheloe said.
“This mistake has been by far the biggest lesson learned for me in my 31 years of existence,” she continued. “I can also tell you that never, ever in a million years did I picture or dream of myself being the face of the world right now as a criminal, and it’s been eating me alive every second, every minute, every hour, every day, into weeks, months, going on to almost two years since the day I posted those two separate videos.”