ST. PAUL — A Minnesota man is now facing two felonies in the killing of two horses.

William Henry St. Sauver Jr. is charged with animal torture in connection with the November shootings of two American Saddlebreds on his family’s Scandia farm.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports the 30-year-old initially said hunters had killed them. But a witness came forward after reading a newspaper report, saying he heard gunshots and saw a horse shot in the head, with blood on its nose. He claimed to see St. Sauver nearby.

The mares were being boarded at the farm and were to become training horses in less than a week.

A man who answered the phone at the farm Saturday and identified himself as a family friend said no one wanted to comment.