Woman sentenced to jail in horse deaths

CHANNAHON _ A Will County judge has fined a woman $10,000 and sentenced her to 180 days in jail on charges she let three horses starve to death.

Will County prosecutor Chuck Pelkie said Wednesday that 32-year-old Sonia Herrera of Channahon also will have to volunteer for 200 hours with an animal welfare organization. She can no longer own any animals.

Herrera earlier pleaded guilty to the felony charges.

A sheriff's deputy found the three dead horses in January.

The deputy also found four other abandoned horses in what Pelkie calls a "terrible condition." The deputy found no food and only frozen water in buckets at the scene.