He's not getting sent to jail.

These New York statutes comprise the state's anti-cruelty provisions.  "Animal" includes every living creature except a human being.  A person who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.  Exclusions include properly conducted scientific tests, experiments or investigations, involving the use of living animals approved by the state commissioner of health.

 He is facing a year maximum but the current buzz is over the fact that he wasn't offered a plea bargain.  The burden of proof is on the state and the cat is alive and seemingly well so they aren't going to throw the book at him.  


 Johnson's step daughter refused to testify or release her medical records so they wouldnt have had much evidence had the case gone to trial.  In the case of cat-kicker Robinson, there's a video account of the incident posted on social media.  Also, Johnson got 4 years in prison.  So what you wrote has no basis in fact.