Man sentenced to 3 years in jail for throwing dog over balcony

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Cobb County man, who admitted to throwing a dog off a second-floor balcony was sentenced in court Friday after making a dramatic attempt to get probation.
 
"I just feel really bad what I did," Marcell Sibley said.

Sibley was caught on security cameras grabbing his small Yorkie by the neck, smacking it, then putting the dog into a crate and tossing the crate down onto the concrete parking lot below.

“I did this. I don't know how I did this, it just happened,” Sibley said.

Sibley, a Katrina evacuee, blamed a stressful situation: no job, no home and medical problems.
 
Prosecutors say after tossing the dog, Sibley went downstairs and tossed the crate and dog into a dumpster, even though a witness found the dog was still alive and saved it.
 
Sibley later went to Animal Control to try to reclaim it.
 
"I just felt real bad for what I did. I just wanted to tell her I'm sorry and just be OK with her or whatever," Sibley said to the court.
 
Sibley offered to do community service with animals, a proposal that didn't fly with prosecutors - but most of all he didn't want to spend time in jail.
 
"I just don't want to go to jail because I don't think going to jail will help me and like she said, I didn't want to give them my dog," Sibley said to the judge.
 
But Judge Steven Schuster said although Sibley seemed remorseful, and had plenty of excuses, he never heard him express concern about the victim.
 
"It's all about you and not the dog," Schuster said.
 
Schuster sentenced Sibley to three years in prison and ordered him sent straight to jail.

Sibley's former pet, although suffering from permanent injuries, is with a new family in Florida.

WSBTV