A man in Florida, the United States, who beheaded his mother’s cat because he thought it was evil has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.

Rudy Espinoza, 25, of Salem, was arrested in June after Marion County sheriff’s deputies found him scratched in covered in blood, after neighbours called authorities, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Investigators who searched his bedroom found the drug Ecstasy, the AP reported. Espinoza pleaded guilty Thursday to animal abuse and drug charges, and Marion County Judge Jamese Rhoades sentenced him.’

Espinoza said he killed the cat because it was evil, when asked why he killed it, according to the AP.