SAN DIEGO -- A Vista man who killed a former neighbor's cat by shooting it with two arrows pleaded guilty Monday to felony animal cruelty.

Robert Eugene Brunner, 47, was sentenced immediately by Judge K. Michael Kirkman to three years in state prison.

According to testimony in a preliminary hearing, Brunner told a woman he shot the arrows at a cat that had been "pissing all over" his yard on Plymouth Drive on the night of April 9, 2006.

A 10-year-old boy testified that he saw the 3-year-old tabby named "Bill" on the morning of April 12 in a neighbor's yard, still impaled with the arrows.

The cat's owner, Janeen Bubien, had the arrows surgically removed, but Bill died two days later.

Bubien sued, and a judge found Brunner liable for the cat's death. The defendant was ordered to pay the woman $2,500 for Bill's death, plus an additional $5,000 to pay for her to move.