Woman sentenced in neglected horses case

A Bonneville County woman accused of neglecting her horses was sentenced Thursday.

Sharon Wilson was originally charged with two misdemeanor counts of permitting animals to go without care.

Bonneville County Prosecutor Bruce Pickett said Wilson pleaded guilty by Alford plea to one of the counts. The other was dropped. An Alford plea means the defendant is asserting her innocence, but concedes she could be found guilty based on the evidence.

Wilson was ordered to pay a $200 fine, plus court costs and to serve a 270 day suspended jail sentence. She will also serve two years probation.

Under terms of her probation, she must account for all the horses on her property, identify each horse and provide the ownership status of each animal. Wilson will also be asked to document the location of any animals that were removed from her property and where they were disposed of.

Then, within 30 days, the court will set a status conference to review that accounting. She will also be ordered to reduce the number of horses on the property to 15 animals.

In March, our station aired stories on Wilson’s animals after photos of dead or distressed horses on her property south of Ucon prompted a social media uproar.

Wilson had insisted she did not starve her horses, which she said were in their mid-20s.