EVANSTON — Evanston resident James Botkin has been sentenced to one year in jail after pleading no contest to bestiality last Monday. The charge followed his assault on a mare owned by Carly and Levi Rudd, of Fort Worth, Texas.

Levi Rudd said he stepped outside at approximately 4 a.m. on Sunday, July 14, to turn off lights on the couple’s trailer, which was parked at the Uinta County Fairgrounds in Evanston. He heard noises coming from the stall barn and discovered Botkin “essentially raping” their mare “with his arm inserted inside” the Rudds’ horse. After being chased and tackled by Levi Rudd, Botkin was arrested and booked into the Uinta County Detention Center.

After Botkin’s arrest, the horse was acting strangely and bleeding from the vaginal area. Upon arriving at a Utah veterinarian, the horse was covered in hives, and an ultrasound discovered vaginal trauma. The mare was medicated and given a feeding tube.

Botkin was sentenced to one year in jail, the maximum term of incarceration for bestiality, a misdemeanor.

Botkin’s arrest and sentencing follow the 2021 criminalization of bestiality in Wyoming.