Oak Harbor Man Charged With Animal Cruelty, Threatening to Kill Two Women

James L. Mathis, 39, was charged in Island County Superior Court on March 3 with first-degree animal cruelty and two counts of felony harassment after allegedly stabbing a family dog and threatening to kill two women, according to court records.

The Oak Harbor man faces the three felony counts in connection with a single incident in which prosecutors allege he both harmed an animal and made death threats against two women. The exact circumstances of the incident, including where it occurred and the identities of the women involved, were not detailed in the available charging information.

The case adds to a pattern of felony animal-cruelty prosecutions that Island County prosecutors have pursued in recent years, though such charges remain relatively rare on Whidbey Island. In a separate 2021 case, Oak Harbor police interviewed witnesses, excavated a shallow grave near a public beach, and commissioned a necropsy after a suspicious dog death was reported the previous fall. That investigation led Island County prosecutors to charge Dwight D. Hill, then 26, with first-degree animal cruelty in connection with the death of a dog named Lady. In a follow-up interview with police, Hill said he had been "too aggressive" putting Lady in her crate and did not mean to hurt her. Under the standard sentencing range, a first-degree animal cruelty conviction carries up to a year in jail.

Investigators have also sought the public's help in a still-unsolved case involving two dogs owned by Jenna Smeltzer, found dead at the Dugualla State Park north trailhead with what she described as brutal injuries, their bodies stacked on top of one another in tall grass. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest and prosecution in that case. Other Oak Harbor-area dog owners reported dogs going missing from the same area, raising concern about a possible serial pet killer or thief operating on the north end of the island. Friends of the Smeltzer family established an online fundraiser to cover cremation and veterinary costs.

Island County has seen other significant animal-cruelty prosecutions. Coupeville resident Jonathan Rasmussen pleaded guilty roughly three years before 2021 to second-degree animal cruelty and unlawful possession of a firearm after repeatedly striking a dog with a pickaxe and then shooting it; a judge imposed an exceptional sentence of 12 months and a day in prison. In 2017, a Clinton man pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty for crushing a fawn's pelvis with his bare hands and shooting a doe with a pellet gun, receiving a three-month jail sentence. A North Whidbey woman was charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty in 2015 for allegedly allowing her horses to starve.

Mathis's case remains pending in Island County Superior Court. Prosecutors have not publicly detailed what specific circumstances preceded the alleged threats or the dog's stabbing.