Prosecutors said animal control later cleared the dog after Sheila Cuevas was found badly injured in an apartment.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A 911 call about a deadly dog attack became the starting point for a Tarrant County assault case that ended with Kaleb Mickens receiving 40 years in prison for the drugging and fatal assault of Sheila Cuevas.
The call came Oct. 8, 2023, when Mickens told authorities that his girlfriend had been attacked by his dog, Soldier, and had stopped breathing. Animal control took the dog, and the animal was euthanized. Prosecutors later said the report was false. Investigators determined Soldier had nothing to do with Cuevas’ injuries or death, shifting the case away from an animal attack and toward the man who had made the emergency call.
That reversal became one of the most striking facts in the prosecution. Assistant District Attorney Allenna Bangs said Cuevas was found at the foot of the bed in the apartment she shared with Mickens. Bangs said she was beaten from head to toe, with a bruised body, swollen face, cauliflower ear, puncture wounds and 15 broken ribs. The number and type of injuries led investigators to reject the dog-attack explanation. “The dog was taken and euthanized,” prosecutors said in their statement, but animal control later concluded the dog was not responsible.
Mickens, 34, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated assault family violence in connection with Cuevas’ death. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office said he drugged and brutally assaulted her before she died. Prosecutors did not announce a murder conviction. They said complications involving the medical examiner and the challenge of proving the precise cause of death made a murder charge difficult to bring. The plea to aggravated assault family violence still allowed the court to impose a four-decade prison term for the assault that prosecutors said led to Cuevas’ death.
The case also brought other sentences against Mickens into the public record. Prosecutors said he received 20 years on a probation revocation tied to aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and 15 years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Dallas County. Those offenses, prosecutors said, involved different women with whom Mickens had relationships. The added sentences gave the hearing a wider scope than the death investigation alone. It became a record of several violent cases and several women who had been connected to Mickens before the courtroom hearing in Fort Worth.
At sentencing, the evidence about the 911 call sat alongside testimony from women who said they had survived abuse. Prosecutors said a full courtroom heard impact statements describing torment, torture, manipulation and sexual assault. Those statements did not change the charge in Cuevas’ case, but they shaped the hearing’s tone. Each woman spoke about survival, prosecutors said, and about the personal devastation of knowing Cuevas did not survive. Cuevas’ brother also addressed Mickens, saying there could be no justice that brought Sheila back, but there could be accountability.
Investigators have not released a single clear motive for the assault. Prosecutors said they never determined why Mickens drugged and beat Cuevas. The unknown motive left the case centered on the physical evidence, the false dog-attack report and the accounts from prior victims. Authorities credited Detective Tracy Dixon and the Arlington Police Department with helping move the case forward. They also thanked victims from across the country who came forward. DA Investigator Timothy Pinckney and Victim Advocate Carma Anderson were also named for their work.
Mickens’ public life added another layer to the case. He was known online as “Cash Cartier” and was described by prosecutors as a prominent figure in IM Academy, a multi-level marketing platform. They said he lured young people into joining his training team with promises that they could make thousands of dollars. Prosecutors said he used perceived wealth and status to manipulate men and women through threats and promises, while hiding what they called a very violent private persona. At his peak, prosecutors said, he was making as much as $20,000 a week.
By fall 2023, that income had reportedly declined. The district attorney’s office did not say the decline explained the assault, and prosecutors did not present a confirmed motive. Still, they described a contrast between Mickens’ public image and the evidence in court. Public photos showed him speaking at events and cultivating a large social media audience. The court record instead focused on a dead woman, a false account to police, a dog that was euthanized, and women who said they had lived through violence and control.
Cuevas’ family described her in memorial materials as loving, kind and joyful. They said her smile and heart lit up every room she entered. Those memories stood apart from the medical and legal details that dominated the case. In court, her relatives did not claim that any sentence could make them whole. They told Mickens that accountability was still possible even though Sheila could not be returned to them. Their words closed the public hearing with grief and a demand for consequences.
Mickens has been sentenced, and prosecutors have not announced any new hearing in the case. The official record now lists a guilty plea, a 40-year sentence in Cuevas’ case and separate terms tied to other assaults involving women.
Author note: Last updated 2026-04-30.