Navy Sailor Arrested in Oak Harbor on Two Felony Animal Cruelty Counts

Two 10-month-old cats named Francisco and Mila arrived at Best Friends Veterinary Clinic on Feb. 19 under circumstances that immediately alarmed the examining veterinarian: the same rolled foil cat toy was lodged in both animals' throats. That alert set off a five-week investigation that ended March 26 when the Oak Harbor Police Department, Island County Sheriff's Office, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrested 25-year-old Kristian Rokita, a U.S. Navy service member, on two counts of first-degree animal cruelty.

Francisco and Mila belonged to Rokita's live-in girlfriend, who first called the veterinarian to report their sudden deaths and brought the animals in. The veterinarian found it "highly unusual for two healthy cats to choke on the same toy at the same time," according to the investigative report filed by Island County Sheriff's Office Animal Control Officer Tammy Esparza. Necropsies performed the following day, Feb. 20, deepened those concerns. Both cats showed blood in their abdominal cavities, fractures and lacerations to the liver, and hemorrhages on the hearts, spleens, kidneys, lungs, and brains. Two separate veterinarians concluded the cats could not have swallowed the toys on their own; the toys were lodged in the larynxes, not the esophaguses, a distinction the vets said ruled out accidental ingestion. Formal necropsy results confirming "blunt force trauma and asphyxiation" as the cause of death for both animals were received by investigators on March 17.

Rokita denied harming the cats when officers first spoke with him. He told investigators that after his girlfriend left in the morning, he heard a crash and the sound of the cats "squealing, gagging and struggling," then found them dead in the living room.

During the investigation, Oak Harbor officers determined that the couple's Larkspur Drive residence falls within Island County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction rather than city limits, and the case was transferred to Esparza. Because Rokita is an active-duty Navy member, NCIS joined the investigation, a standard jurisdictional coordination when service members face civilian criminal allegations. On March 26, Rokita was taken into custody without incident and booked into Island County Jail. He was scheduled to appear in Island County Superior Court on March 27.

In Washington state, first-degree animal cruelty is a class C felony under RCW 16.52.205, carrying up to five years in prison and fines reaching $10,000. A conviction also triggers a mandatory, permanent prohibition on owning, caring for, possessing, or residing in any household where an animal is present. Because Rokita is active military, the case may also run parallel to separate administrative or disciplinary proceedings within the Navy.

How to report suspected animal cruelty on Whidbey Island

If you witness signs of animal abuse or neglect, acting quickly can matter. Within Oak Harbor city limits, contact the City of Oak Harbor Animal Control through the I-COM non-emergency line at (360) 679-9567. For incidents elsewhere on Whidbey Island outside Oak Harbor, contact the Island County Sheriff's Office. Animals taken into protective custody in Oak Harbor are sheltered at WAIF, the Whidbey Animals' Improvement Foundation in Coupeville, which also accepts owner surrenders and places animals for adoption; information is available at waifanimals.org.

Warning signs that an animal may be in danger include unexplained or patterned injuries, extreme fearfulness around a specific person, severe weight loss or poor coat condition, and injury descriptions from an owner that are inconsistent with the physical evidence. In the Francisco and Mila case, a single call from a concerned owner to her veterinarian was enough to set a full multi-agency investigation in motion.