Man charged with 23 felony counts of animal torture to guinea pigs

WOODS CROSS, Utah (KUTV) — A Woods Cross man has been charged with several felony counts after he posted videos online of himself torturing several guinea pigs.

Samuel J. Webster, 18, was charged by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City on 23 felony counts related to alleged animal cruelty.

According to the documents, Webster purchased four different guinea pigs from pet stores across the Wasatch Front in 2021.

He allegedly then posted 23 videos of himself torturing the animals to multiple YouTube accounts.

"It is alleged that Webster posted the videos with graphic titles including “Guinea Pig Torture” and “Torture is Fun,” court documents stated.

Documents stated that Webster allegedly made comments on his own videos after uploading them to YouTube, reinforcing his desire to kill and torture guinea pigs.

After uploading the videos to YouTube, Webster allegedly commented on them, reinforcing his desire to kill and torture guinea pigs.

Webster was charged with 18 counts of felony animal crush video distribution on YouTube, one count of felony animal crush video creation, and four counts of animal crushing.

"The term “animal crush video” as defined under federal law, makes it illegal to depict, via photograph, motion-picture film, video, digital recording or electronic image, actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury, and is obscene," the Utah court documents stated.

KUTV reported on Webster back in 2021 when an arrest was initially made.

KUTV reporter, Hayley Crombleholme tracked down Leo Boddicker, one of the internet sleuths who said they helped track Webster down. He lives in McComb, Illinois, and has two guinea pigs of his own, Jude and Floyd.

When Boddicker saw a post on the subreddit for guinea pigs saying someone had a YouTube channel with guinea pig torture videos, he said one thing went through his mind.

“I can’t imagine someone wanting to do this them,” Boddicker said.

Boddicker decided he needed to find out who was behind the videos. To do that, he had to watch some of the content.

“It was some really nasty stuff," he said. "I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

He said two of the channels that posted the guinea pig videos had been taken down, but he found another channel that appeared to be connected. And he shared it with other Redditors.

Then, Boddicker said he was invited to a group chat devoted to trying to investigate.

“I stayed up all night with these other people on Reddit, and there was also a Facebook chat too," he said. "People were trying to find out who he was based on clues in his videos. Like in some of his videos, a box from Petco can be seen.”

As the group kept investigating, Boddicker said someone discovered "another YouTube channel by the name of Samuel Webster.”

From there, they found Instagram and Facebook accounts.

“In the pictures, like it kind of matched what we saw in the videos,” Boddicker said. “Because we saw the bottom of his face, and we saw he had like a birthmark by his lip.”

They found an old address in West Bountiful, and contacted police. From there, Woods Cross officers took the case.