California man avoids prison after 2021 attack on tortoise

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California man has avoided prison time after he drunkenly trespassed at a preschool last year and attacked a pet tortoise named Michelangelo. The San Jose Mercury News on Friday (Dec. 16, 2022) reported that the 42-year-old man was also linked to other break-ins at the East San Jose school, and stole thousands of dollars of items in the days before and after the attack on Michelangelo, a decades-old African sulcata, in January 2021. The man’s public defender said his client’s behavior against the tortoise was the result of excessive intoxication. The preschool did not return the newspaper’s request for comment Friday.