Temecula Man Sentenced in Fallbrook High Goat Theft

A 23-year-old Temecula man who tried to steal two goats from Fallbrook High School, taping their muzzles and causing the death of one of the animals, was sentenced to three years probation Wednesday in a Vista courtroom.

Bryce Zubicki pleaded guilty last month to grand theft of an animal; one of the animals died.

He also received a six-month jail term but the judge in the Vista Courthouse suspended it.

Zubicki was arrested in July by investigators who found a DNA match between him and evidence left at the scene of the June 15, 2011 crime.

Prosecutors said that Zubicki duct-taped the muzzles and legs of the animals on the last day of school.

Authorities initially thought it might have been a senior prank, according to reports, but investigators later surmised that the defendant may have wanted to add the goats to his menagerie of farm animals.

A security guard about 5 a.m. that day spotted a hooded suspect in the livestock pen with the two Tennessee fainting goats and scared him off by shining a flashlight, according to sheriff's reports.

The guard removed the tape from the animals' muzzles but one of the goats died of suffocation, a necropsy determined.

Zubicki must stay away from Fallbrook High School and cannot own or possess any animals while he's on probation, according to San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Elisabeth Silva.

—City News Service contributed to this report.