Suspects scatter at alleged cockfight
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on July 26, 2010 2:06 PM
SELMA -- Johnston County Sheriff's deputies arrested four people on cockfighting charges Sunday, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said.
After receiving an emergency call, a patrol deputy found cockfighting taking place at 1729 Davis Home, lead investigator Capt. Buck Pipkin reported.
A deputy found 23 live chickens and three dead birds at the property, which is located off Interstate 95 near Micro and a few miles northeast of Selma.
When the patrol deputies arrived, a number of people "scattered" when they saw law enforcement, but four people were arrested, a Sheriff's Office official familiar with the case said.
Four men face charges from the alleged cockfighting, including Juan A. Villareal, 40, Victor Morales Lopez, 25, of Jacksonville, Emilio Aguilar Carrillo, 17, of Smithfield and Cuahtemoc Z. Rodriquez, 32, of Kenly.
All of the men face identical charges, including cockfighting and conspiracy to conduct cockfighting.
State law makes cockfighting a Class I felony, and also order landlords who discover cockfighting to void a lease and "evict the lessee immediately."
The law states that a person is guilty of cockfighting if they "instigate, promote, conduct, (are) employed at" or allows property to be used for spectator cockfighting.