MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – A married couple that was under a months-long investigation for suspected animal cruelty is now facing criminal charges.
Antonio Delua, 26, and his wife Jocilyn Delua, 24, were both taken into custody Tuesday morning on 39 counts each of animal cruelty.
News4JAX first reported the investigation in November when Clay County Animal Control, Clay County Sheriff’s deputies and Jacksonville Sheriffs’s Officers executed a search on the couple’s home on Ashton Street in Middleburg.
RELATED: ‘I saw dead animals’: Suspected animal cruelty case now involves two homes
Investigators said the search came after the couple brought multiple dead dogs to a Jacksonville veterinarian’s office to be cremated. The staff at the vet’s office noticed the dogs were in poor condition, prompting them to notify JSO.
JSO traced the owner back to a home they were renting in Middleburg.
According to court documents, when investigators searched the property, they discovered 39 severely neglected animals, which included 25 dogs, two prairie dogs, three bearded dragons, and nine leopard geckos. Investigators noted in the report that some of the animals were caged while others were roaming on the property.
According to investigators, the living conditions of the animals included piles of feces on the floor, pools of urine soaked into the floor, and the smell of ammonia throughout the home. The court document stated that most of the animals had little to no access to clean water and food and were sitting in their urine and feces.
“The smell was atrocious,” said a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous because of her job in law enforcement. “We were about 50-plus yards away and in that short amount of time the team opened the door to walk in and out, it just hit you like a ton of bricks.”
Clay County Animal Control officers said they found animals with health concerns including underweight and poor body conditions, skin conditions and dental disease.
All 39 animals were removed from the property and placed into protective custody.
Clay County detective Garry Winterstein said this was one of the most disturbing animal cruelty cases he’s investigated.
“It’s extremely sad and you can’t answer why, and you have to keep a clear head and investigate it and do the best you can with it, said the detective.
“It’s very heartbreaking, sad, and infuriating in a scene that a human being could do that to any living thing or person,” the neighbor said.
While the Clay County Animal Control and sheriff’s office were conducting their investigation, Jacksonville police were also investigating the couple in a separate case involving suspected animal cruelty.
News4JAX learned through multiple sources that weeks before the couple moved to Middleburg, they were moved out of a home they were renting on Frost Street in Jacksonville. Multiple neighbors who were helping the homeowner told News4JAX that the Front Street home was just as trashed by animal waste and carnage as the home in Middleburg.
Neighbor Steve Terrell told News4JAX that the elderly owner of the home wanted him to be a witness to everything that a cleanup crew had to pull from the house.
“I saw dead animals. They trashed that house. It was knee-deep in dog feces,” said Terrell before describing the dead animals he saw being hauled away from the home. “It was laid out on the road. The other guy who was cleaning up, I don’t know how he was able to do it because I was wanting to throw up.”
Upon further review of the home, News4JAX could see what appeared to be paw prints and feces smeared on the windows. Although a work crew threw away what was inside, there were still signs of dog feces on the floor and walls. There were also signs that dogs were kept outside.
Multiple neighbors told News4JAX that the couple who was renting the home on Frost Street did not appear to live inside the house.
“They would come late at night. Stay for a few minutes and they will be gone,” Terrell said.
That observation was consistent with what News4JAX was told by an anonymous neighbor of the Middleburg home that was being rented by the same couple.
“We didn’t see a vehicle there. We saw a U-Haul truck one day there and then it was gone the next,” said the anonymous neighbor.
Neighbor’s descriptions of the smell of animal death and waste from both homes were also consistent.
“If you’ve ever been around that smell before, you never forget. Just the deceased,” said the anonymous neighbor.
“It smelled too bad. You can smell it out here right now. Thinks of what it smells like inside,” Terrell said.
Right after News4JAX aired two stories about the gruesome discoveries at both homes involving the same couple, a local dog breeder who spoke with a Jacksonville police officer investigating the couple spoke with News4JAX. She asked to remain anonymous because she didn’t want her dog breeding business to suffer retaliation.
The anonymous breeder said she became involved in helping the Jacksonville police investigation following the discovery of the dead animals and at the home on Frost Street. She said before that discovery, she noticed the couple had posted ads on social media to sell a litter of puppies that included pictures of the puppies.
“There were a lot of concerns that were shared by multiple people locally and throughout Florida that these puppies were underweight, not taken care of, they just looked sick for their age at six weeks,” said the breeder who went on to say she reached out to the man who sold the couple the female dog that gave birth to the litter to ask him if he knew the litter appeared to be in bad shape.
The breeder said she talked the man into going to the house on Frost Street and having the couple return the female dog and her litter.
“He was unable to take care of them because of his living situation, so I advised him that I would take them in if you just grab them. I took the puppies in at six and a half weeks old. All of them but one weighed under five pounds at six weeks. That’s unusual. Six-week-old puppies can vary depending on the size of their appearance and pedigree. They should have been eight to fifteen pounds,” said the breeder.
The breeder said she took the dogs to her vet and from that point, the Duval County Animal Control got involved.
“I told them about the situation to make sure I did the right thing, and after that, animal control contacted me to provide them additional details,” the breeder said.
This is when News4JAX learned the couple was already on the radar of the Duval County Animal Control office, which was before the start of the CCSO and JSO investigations.
Of the 39 Clay County charges of animal cruelty against the couple, only 10 are felonies because they are listed as aggravated animal cruelty charges. The rest are misdemeanors.
A Clay County judge set each of their bonds at $100,000.
It’s unclear if JSO is still planning to file criminal charges.
An online search of the couple revealed two businesses in their name, which included American Dynasty Rehabilitation Corp. and All Sorts Canine Training LLC.
Law enforcement sources as well as a local breeder told News4JAX the couple claimed to be dog trainers.