BELLEVILLE, Ill. — A judge in southwestern Illinois has sentenced a 46-year-old man who admitted killing seven kittens with a BB gun to two years of probation.

Terry Roy of Belleville pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals. The judge credited him with 41 days he spent in jail.

Roy reportedly tried to turn the kittens over to an animal-control agency but was told that if no one claimed them within a week they'd be euthanized. Witnesses told police Roy then decided to kill them himself and left the bodies in a Belleville park where they were found by a woman walking her dog.