MEDFORD, Ore. – A Medford man pleaded guilty by reason of insanity to an animal abuse charge in Jackson County Circuit Court this week, after authorities said he stabbed, spray-painted and set fire to his pet kitten.

After his plea, Jerry Lawrence McCray, 35, was committed to the state psychiatric hospital. Circuit Court Judge Ray White ordered McCray to spend five years under the supervision of the state's Psychiatric Security Review Board.

In an attempt to exorcise a gray, 10-week-old kitten named Cosmo, McCray stabbed it multiple times with a small knife, said Sarita Glassburner, deputy district attorney for Jackson County. He then sprayed it with olive drab paint and lit its head on fire. McCray thought the cat contained "Indian spirits," the prosecutor added.

A caregiver at a group home for the mentally disabled where McCray was living first told authorities that he had killed his cat.