LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has been sentenced for killing his girlfriend’s dog.

Online court records say 48-year-old Francisco Rodriguez pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty after prosecutors lowered the original felony charge of intentional animal cruelty. The judge sentenced Rodriguez to a year in jail and credited him with 139 days already served.

A court document says Rodriguez’s girlfriend woman reported that when she and her daughter returned from a store May 21 she found her 12-year-old dog, Maggie, dead. She told a Lincoln police officer that Rodriguez probably killed the dog because he had expressed his dislike for Maggie and had kicked her before.

A necropsy showed the dog died from internal bleeding because of external trauma.