A University of California, Berkeley, law school graduate was sentenced to four years' probation and 16 hours of animal shelter work per month for beheading a chicken-sized exotic bird during a drunken escapade in October 2012 at a Las Vegas Strip resort, the Associated Press reported.
The state of Nevada and the people affected by the death of the helmeted guineafowl named Turk were given apologies by 25-year-old Justin Alexander Teixeira.
"It was the worst moment of my life," Teixeira said in his first public comment since the incident. "If there was anything I could do to undo it, I would."
Teixeira, Eric Cuellar and Hazhir Kargaran were filmed laughing and chasing the bird in a wildlife habitat garden area with two other Berkeley students. Security footage showed the animal's neck being twisted by Teixeira.
As the guests having breakfast nearby watched in horror, he tossed the bird's body and flipped the head into some nearby rocks, the AP reported.
Cuellar, now 26, and Kargaran, now 27, each pleaded guilty last year to reduced misdemeanor charges. Each was fined and sentenced to community service.
"Teixeira, of Placerville, California, pleaded guilty in May 2013 to one felony charge of killing another person's animal," the AP reported. "That avoided trial on that charge and two other felony counts that could have gotten him up to eight years in prison."
He was allegedly "heavily intoxicated."
Instead of spending time in jail, Teixeira finished a 190-day prison boot camp at Indian Springs.
Apart from receiving top honors in the program, he also passed the California bar exam during that time, Defense attorney Michael Pariente told Clark County District Court Judge Stefany Miley.
Whether Teixeira will be able to practice law could depend on whether he can get his sentence reduced to a misdemeanor after completing probation. A statement on the bar website allows room for a pardon for a showing of "overwhelming reform and rehabilitation."
