Four remaining suspects convicted, fined in Howard County cockfighting ring

ST. PAUL, Neb. -- Four remaining suspects have been convicted for their roles in a Howard County cockfighting ring.
Howard County Judge Tami Schendt sentenced Eduardo Alcantar of Columbus, along with Grand Island residents Jorge Reyes Jimenez, Jorge Rodriguez and Jesus Serrano Sanchez, on Wednesday. All three pleaded no contests to possession of animal fighting paraphernalia and were fined $500.
Six other suspects were previously convicted and fined.
All 10 were originally charged with felonies before pleading to the misdemeanor charges.
The last four suspects in a Howard County cockfighting case were convicted and fined Wednesday.
Jorge Reyes Jimenez, Jesus Serrano Sanchez and Jorge Rodriguez, all of Grand Island, and Eduardo Alcantar of Columbus, each pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor possession of animal fighting paraphernalia. Howard County Judge Tami Schendt fined each man $500.
The four join six other men who were originally charged with felony cockfighting and pleaded to identical charges and were ordered to pay the same fine.
Howard County Sheriff Tom Busch announced in December that his office arrested 10 men after a 911 caller reported the rooster fighting event in a rural area southeast of St. Paul.
The arrest affidavit says a deputy approached the property and saw two roosters in individual cages. A man walked out of a barn and told the deputy the men inside were just drinking beer. Some of the men tried to leave but were blocked by the Sheriff. After getting a search warrant, the deputy says he searched the barn and found roosters with razors attached to their legs, blood in a makeshift pen, crates with numbers labeling the roosters, a bucket of bloody water and several roosters.
The affidavit says Alcantar admitted that there was cockfighting going on in the barn.
Busch told our news partners KSNB Local 4 that deputies found seven roosters, one of which later died from injuries suffered during one of the fights.