Helena man receives partially deferred, suspended sentence in animal cruelty case

A Helena man received a partially deferred and suspended sentence Thursday on misdemeanor and felony cruelty to animals charges he pleaded guilty to after leaving multiple pets in a hot camper last September.

Kenneth Joseph Adam was sentenced by Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley and received one year in the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center, all suspended, and one year deferred.

The sentence was in accordance with a plea agreement signed by Adam and prosecutors in March.

Adam's wife, Sarah Adam, also pleaded guilty to the same charges and was given a one-year deferred sentence in early April.

Kenneth Adam's remaining three felony counts were dismissed during the sentencing hearing.

He declined to make a statement during the hearing, but Seeley said when she read the pre-sentence investigation report he seemed to be embarrassed by the incident and that he regretted what happened.

According to court documents, a man who had been camping and fishing in view of the trailer on Sept. 10, 2025, called a county sheriff’s deputy to the campground near Holter Reservoir around 4 p.m. that day saying they had heard a dog whimpering inside the trailer and had seen a dog break out a window trying to get air.

The high temperature that day was 82 degrees. A deputy came over from Lincoln, arriving around 5:15 p.m., and found the trailer and a car parked next to it, both with Washington plates. The vehicle came back registered to Sarah Adam and Kenneth Joseph Adam.

The witness said the two had left the campground around 11 a.m. and that his trailer had been too hot for him to be inside of even with all the windows, doors and a roof vent open.

The deputy could not get ahold of either Adams, so they stuck around, giving the two dogs — a husky-like dog and a Labrador-hound mix — several bottles of water as they kept sticking their snouts out of the broken window. The deputy also saw three cats inside.

The deputy saw animal feces and urine inside the trailer and no food or water, according to an arrest affidavit.

After the deputy waited around for more than three hours, the two finally arrived back at their campsite around 8:30 p.m., saying they had gone to Belgrade to go pick up mail but also stopped by the library in Helena on their way back.

Adam said the two had been thinking about trying to rehome the dogs because of their living situation and also that the dogs had broken the trailer window out previously, according to court documents. He allegedly told the deputy they had forgotten to open the windows or give the animals water before leaving.

Since the incident, most of the animals were rehomed and the couple retained a dog and a cat, which was in accordance with the two-pet limit imposed by the court.