Lawyer claims condemned guy doesn't have the animal.
Since the search continued Tuesday to get a Bengal tiger that sparked terror at a Houston residential area, an attorney for the guy arrested in relation to the episode denied that his customer is the huge cat owner and accused authorities of enjoying a cat-and-mouse game which has sabotaged his arrangement to assist locate the creature.
Victor Hugo Cuevas, 28, was taken into custody Monday night to a felony charge of evading authorities, who declared that he fled in a car together with all the tiger after it appeared from his Houston home on Sunday evening and prompted a flood of 911 calls from worried citizens, such as an off-duty law enforcement officer that pulled a gun to the tiger.
Cuevas' lawyer, Michael Elliott, told ABC News on Tuesday that Cuevas was intending to willingly surrender and had consented to assist direct authorities to the tiger as well as its owner but he had been murdered in the last minute and detained at his mother's house at Fort Bend County southeast of Houston.
"We made arrangements to stunt at 8:15 (p.m.) and we had been working on everything collectively," Elliott explained. "We had been helping them by providing them some information regarding the operator and the way we could potentially track down the operator and the tiger.
"Afterward, behind my back, they simply went outside and arrested my customer 15 minutes before he was to leave the home to go turn himself ," Elliott explained.
Elliott stated he intends to stop by Cuevas later Tuesday in the Fort Bend County Jail, where he's being held without bond, and choose whether they continue to be interested in assisting authorities find the tiger.
"We are still interested in helpingbut if someone just apartment lies to you and plays matches, it makes you wonder whether they are reliable to work with," Elliott explained.
"The tiger doesn't belong to Mr. Cuevas. It absolutely doesn't," Elliott explained.
Neighbors of Cuevas started calling 911 roughly 8 pm Sunday, reporting a Bengal tiger wearing a collar had been drifting around their own neighborhood.
Video taken by a witness revealed a man leaving a home on Ivy Wall Drive and agreeing together with the deputy to not take the tiger. Elliott confirmed the guy was Cuevas.
Borza alleged that Cuevas place the tiger in his Jeep Cherokee and drove as Houston police officers were coming at the spectacle. He explained a short pursuit prevailed, but Cuevas was able to eliminate.
Elliott declined to state why the tiger was Cuevas' house if he's not the owner of the creature.
"You watched the movie in which he is knowledgeable about the tiger and knows how to deal with a tiger but doesn't indicate that the tiger is his," Elliott explained. "It does not signify he's the person who took away the tiger in the home. Plus it does not indicate he understands anything today, except for that the person is that gets the tiger and also the whereabouts of this tiger"
He cited video revealing at least another man standing in the door of Cuevas' house in the time of this episode.
