A Cat “Sacrifice” Was Supposed to Launch His Rap Career. It Bought Him Two Years at Rikers Instead.
- 2 Years the maximum sentence New York law allows for aggravated cruelty to animals — and exactly what Bronx Supreme Court Justice Laurence Busching gave David Mosley on Aug. 10, 2026 — amNY; Bronx District Attorney's Office, Aug. 10, 2026
- Up to 7 Years the combined prison exposure Mosley faced at arrest on the two felony criminal mischief counts alone, before pleading down to a single cruelty count — News 12 Bronx, Nov. 4, 2025
- 10 Years how long Mosley is now barred from owning or harboring any animal, under the terms of his sentence — amNY; News 12 Bronx, Aug. 10, 2026
- 1 Day how close his promised Oct. 31 “LIVE SACRIFICE” stunt came to happening before NYPD arrested him on Oct. 30, 2025 — Newsweek, Nov. 2025
- 0 other criminal cases on Mosley's record in the Bronx, according to the District Attorney's office — amNY, Aug. 10, 2026
David Mosley, 26, of the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, wanted attention for his music. He performs — performed — under the stage name Church of Ububal. In October 2025 he got the attention by posting images of a dead cat to his Instagram account. On Aug. 10, 2026, a Bronx judge gave him exactly the sentence a different judge had promised him nine months earlier: the statutory maximum.
Mosley pleaded guilty in July to a single felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals under New York’s Agriculture and Markets Law, admitting what prosecutors had alleged since his arrest: that he brought a live cat into his apartment, killed it, and posted photos of the dead animal online to promote his rap career. Bronx Supreme Court Justice Laurence Busching sentenced him to two years, the maximum the statute allows, and barred him from owning or harboring any animal for a decade. He is serving the sentence at Rikers Island.
The stunt that was supposed to make Mosley famous did — just not in the direction he planned. It also drew the kind of attention no publicist would recommend: a grand jury indictment, a courtroom repeatedly packed with animal-rights advocates, a 2025 NYC mayoral candidate publicly demanding he go back to jail, and, according to his own attorney, a forced move out of the apartment where police say it happened.
Building surveillance footage shows Mosley carrying a live cat into his apartment on Oct. 9, 2025. Two days later, he posted a photo of himself with the animal to his Instagram account, @churchofububal. On or about Oct. 22, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s charging documents, a second photo went up on the same account — the cat, no longer alive, in what appeared to be a pool of blood, staged with lit candles and occult symbols nearby. He had already told followers, in a since-deleted but archived Oct. 27 YouTube livestream, that the whole thing was a joke: he said he’d found the cat already dead and used it — or possibly a prop — to fake a “horror picture.”
Then he promised a sequel. “LIVE SACRIFICE 10-31 be there or be square,” he wrote, setting a Halloween date for a repeat performance. NYPD detectives, alerted by community tips and News 12’s own reporting, searched his apartment on Oct. 29 and found dried biological material the ASPCA later confirmed was feline blood. They arrested him the next morning, Oct. 30, at 9:15 a.m. — one day before he could stage whatever he had planned for Halloween night.
NYPD charged him with two counts of criminal mischief, one count of aggravated cruelty to animals, one count of torturing and injuring animals, and one count of disposal of a dead animal — a combined exposure of up to seven years on the criminal mischief counts alone, on top of whatever the cruelty charge carried.
Mosley was arraigned before Bronx Criminal Court Judge Linda Poust Lopez in front of a packed courtroom on Nov. 18, 2025, and pleaded not guilty. Animal-rights advocates rallied outside; the judge denied News 12’s request to film inside. Poust Lopez made her position plain from the bench, months before any plea was on the table.
“I will not approve a plea deal on the animal cruelty charge unless it is the maximum sentence on that charge.”
Judge Linda Poust Lopez, Bronx Criminal Court, Nov. 18, 2025
The advocates who showed up outside court gave the cat a name it never had in life: Mercy. Some of them now want a state law named for it — a registry of convicted animal abusers — modeled on the sex-offender registry. A Bronx grand jury indicted Mosley on Jan. 13, 2026, on Aggravated Cruelty to Animals and a second count of torturing and injuring animals. He was arraigned before Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas and again pleaded not guilty. Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark (D) announced the indictment directly:
“This defendant is accused of the torture of a stray cat that he took into his home. The defendant's alleged shocking behavior included posting images of a dead cat on social media and bragging about what he had allegedly done.”
Darcel D. Clark (D), Bronx District Attorney, Jan. 13, 2026
ASPCA forensic veterinarian Dr. Laura Niestat matched the live cat from Mosley’s Oct. 11 post to the dead animal in the later one, tying the two images to the same animal; Assistant District Attorney Melanie Smith prosecuted the case for the Bronx DA’s office. By mid-January 2026, Mosley’s attorney, Paul London, told the Daily News his client had relocated out of his Bedford Park apartment. London said animal advocates had funded wanted posters targeting Mosley and that the harassment had become unmanageable — though police told the same reporters no harassment complaint had actually been filed by Mosley or his legal team.
Nearly eight months after Judge Poust Lopez drew her line, Mosley crossed it. On July 10, 2026, he pleaded guilty before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Laurence Busching to a single felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals under N.Y. Agriculture & Markets Law § 353-a — the statute that caps a definite prison term at two years. The remaining counts, including both criminal mischief charges that carried the heavier exposure, were resolved as part of the plea. Busching revoked Mosley’s supervised release on the spot and remanded him into custody at Rikers Island to await sentencing.
Busching handed down that sentence on Aug. 10, 2026: two years, the statutory maximum, with credit for time served since the July plea, plus a ten-year ban on owning or harboring any animal. The Bronx DA’s office says Mosley will serve the full term at Rikers Island rather than being transferred to a state prison upstate, a function of the sentence length rather than any special arrangement. Clark’s office marked the case closed with a statement that dropped the word “alleged” entirely — the conviction had settled what the indictment could only accuse.
“This defendant committed a crime that shocked and outraged the community. For reasons known only to him, he tortured and killed a cat and then posted disturbing images of the dead animal on social media. He has been held accountable for what he did.”
Darcel D. Clark (D), Bronx District Attorney, Aug. 10, 2026
The case pulled in attention well beyond the Bronx courthouse. Guardian Angels founder and 2025 Republican NYC mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa joined residents and animal-welfare advocates from Little Wanderers in the Bronx during the case to demand that Mosley be jailed rather than released pending trial.
Today I joined residents and animal welfare advocates from Little Wanderers in the Bronx to demand that David Mosley be put back in jail. Abuse of any kind cannot be tolerated. If this man can harm voiceless animals he is a danger to our communities. He tortured cats for fun.
There is no public record that Mosley’s music career benefited from any of it. What is on the record: a felony conviction, the statutory maximum sentence, a decade-long ban on ever owning a pet again, and roughly ten months during which strangers packed a Bronx courtroom — not for his rap career, but for his prosecution. The livestream was meant to build an audience. It built one anyway, just not the one he was promoting to.
David Mosley, 26, an aspiring Bronx rapper who performed as Church of Ububal, pleaded guilty on July 10, 2026, to aggravated cruelty to animals after killing a cat and posting images of it online in October 2025 to promote his music. Bronx Supreme Court Justice Laurence Busching sentenced him on Aug. 10, 2026, to two years — the statutory maximum under N.Y. Agriculture & Markets Law § 353-a — and banned him from owning or harboring any animal for ten years. He is serving the sentence at Rikers Island. Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark (D)'s office prosecuted the case; Judge Linda Poust Lopez had said months earlier she would approve no plea deal short of the maximum, and got exactly that.
