Crime

Vegas exotic-bird beheading leads to boot camp for law school grad

By Barry Leibowitz

October 17, 2013 / 10:00 AM EDT / CBS News

Three University of California-Berkeley law school students are accused in the Oct. 2012 killing and decapitation of a helmeted guinea-fowl similar to the one seen above, and that was part of a Las Vegas resort attraction. CBS San Francisco

(CBS/AP) LAS VEGAS - Justin Teixeira, a 25-year-old University of California, Berkeley, law school graduate, was handcuffed and taken to prison boot camp Wednesday for beheading an exotic bird during a drunken chase at a Las Vegas Strip resort.

PICTURES: Crimes against Animals (GRAPHIC IMAGES)

Teixeira has to serve six months in the camp, and probation, before he can ask to have his felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor.

It all has to do with the killing of a helmeted guineafowl that was chased down by Texiera and two other Berkeley students at the Flamingo resort in October 2012. The chicken-sized bird's body was found - it's head was found in nearby rocks - and the preceding pursuit was caught on surveillance video.

Teixeira pleaded guilty in May to one count of killing another person's animal. That avoided trial on three felony counts. The other students pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and were fined and sentenced to community service.

Complete coverage of the Las Vegas exotic bird case on Crimesider