COTTON CO. (KFDX/KJTL) – A former Walters city councilor pleads guilty to poisoning a neighbor’s cats and no contest to obstructing a police officer which involved a call to the city manager to stop the investigation.

Bobby Nance’s plea also required him to resign his city council seat, which he did in a letter effective January 12, 2023, which the council is expected to act on in their next meeting.

Nance was sentenced to one year, but with all but 30 days suspended and fines totaling $750.

He will be allowed to serve his jail time on weekends, from Friday evenings to Sunday evenings.

The investigation by Walters police and an Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation agent began in July 2021 when Nance’s neighbor notified police she suspected Nance was killing her cats with poison-laced cat food in a tub on his front porch. She said two of her cats died shortly after the tub was placed on the porch. The complaint filed by the District Attorney stated a mother cat and several kittens died.

A police officer came to investigate and found the tub and confiscated it.

He questioned Nance and said Nance denied putting poison in the food but admitted he had poured some old cat food in the tub and put it on his driveway.

After the officer left, the neighbor called the officer to report she had heard Nance and his wife arguing in their backyard and heard his wife tell him to get the poison and he replied “It’s gone.”

That same day the OSBI investigator said Nance called Walters City Manager Douglas Strange and told him the investigation need to “stop here on this porch right now. Do you understand what I’m telling you? This needs to stop here, and don’t need to go any further.”

The OSBI investigator reported a slightly different version from Nance. He said he showed Nance a photo of the tub with cat food and green pellets mixed in it. He said Nance said the tub was the one he had on his porch. He said he had found it the week before on the curb of his house and that it already had cat food in it. The investigator said Nance said he picked it up and moved it closer to his house on his driveway, and he also denied calling the city manager to demand the investigation stop.

The officer said Nance then said he wanted an attorney and the interview ended.

An analysis of the cat food by the Oklahoma Animal Disease Laboratory showed the cat food contained the highly lethal and fast-acting poison Brodifacoum, commonly used for rat control.

Conditions of Nance’s plea include no contact with the owner of the cats during his probation.