Owner of large Kentucky cockfighting venue sentenced. He agreed to dismantle the place
The owner of a large cockfighting pit in Eastern Kentucky has been sentenced to eight months on home detention.
Robert Dwayne Baker pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit animal fighting, a felony under federal law.
As part of his guilty plea, Baker also agreed to dismantle the venue and forfeit a total of $85,395 to the government.
The pit Baker owned at Isom, in Letcher County, was called the Whitesburg Chicken Pit or American Testing Facility, according to court records.
The venue had seating for an estimated 500 people, a concession stand, a main fighting pit, a station to weigh roosters and place to sharpen the metal gaffs that participants put on the roosters’ legs during fights so they can cut their opponents, according to the court record.
Zachary Bryson, a Kentucky State Police officer on a task force with the FBI, said in an affidavit that the pit was considered to be one of the largest in Eastern Kentucky at one point.
Baker helped his brother build the pit and inherited it from him in 2022. Police raided the facility the same year and shut it down.
Police found information that there were 38 fight dates scheduled at the pit between Nov. 6, 2021, and July 30, 2022. When police went there on Feb. 26, 2022, there were more than 80 roosters entered in fights and about 200 spectators present, according to the court record.
Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced Baker on Dec. 5 to two years’ probation, with the first eight months on home detention.
Five other people were charged with Baker: Virgil Saylor and Tina Miller, who allegedly helped run fights at the venue; Henry Locke, who sold gaffs; Brandon Honeycutt, who allegedly helped referee fights; and Chris Prater, charged with exhibiting an animal in a fight.
Locke died while the case was pending. The others have pleaded guilty, but only Honeycutt has been sentenced.
Reeves sentenced him to one year of probation with a requirement to perform 40 hours of community service each month for 11 months.
