Oak Harbor man faces charges in deaths of cats
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 27, 2026
An Oak Harbor man is facing felony charges in connection with the deaths of two adolescent cats that suffered severe internal injuries as well as cat-toy-related asphyxiation, according to the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
On March 26, deputies were assisted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in arresting 25-year-old Kristian Rokita, a member of the Navy, on suspicion of two counts of animal cruelty in the first degree. He was scheduled to appear in Island County Superior Court Friday afternoon, after press time.
According to a report by Tammy Esparza, animal control officer for the Island County Sheriff’s Office, Oak Harbor police originally responded to Best Friends Veterinary Clinic on Feb. 19 for a report of two 10-month-old cats that had died under suspicious circumstances. The cats, Francisco and Mila, belonged to Rokita’s live-in girlfriend.
The woman first called the veterinarian to report the mysterious feline deaths, and the veterinarian asked her to bring the bodies in. The woman told police she left in the morning and returned to find her kitties dead and that Rokita placed their bodies in a shoe box.
Rokita spoke with police and denied harming the cats. After his girlfriend left in the morning, he said, he heard a crash and the sound of the cats “squealing, gagging and struggling,” the report states. He said he got out of bed and found the cats dead in the living room.
During the investigation, Oak Harbor officers realized that the couple’s Larkspur Drive residence is in Island County, so the case was handed over to the animal control officer from the sheriff’s office.
One of the veterinarians found that both cats had rolled pieces of a foil cat toy lodged in their throats; the vet determined that it was “highly unusual for two healthy cats to choke on the same toy at the same time,” the report states.
The veterinarian conducted necropsies the next day and found each cat had foil toys lodged in their larynxes. Two different veterinarians opined that there was no way the cats could have ingested the toys on their own since they would have been in their esophaguses — not larynxes.
In addition, the necropsy showed that both cats had blood in their abdominal cavities, as well as fractures and lacerations to the liver, hemorrhages on the hearts, spleens, kidneys, lungs and brains; all of the injuries were indicators of blunt force trauma, the report states.
The veterinarians said the deaths were suspicious and could not have been accidents, the report states.
The animal control officer received the completed necropsy on March 17. The veterinarian determined that the cause of death for both cats was blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.
