The saga turned dark, though, when one of the zebras was found dead in what appeared to be an illegal snare trap in a forest owned by the Girl Scouts. The missing zebras were eventually “returned to the herd” in December 2021, the county said in a statement, though county and federal officials were not involved in the capture.

Prosecutors spent three hours presenting a case built upon the testimony of four witnesses and an exotic animal and zoo expert. Holly’s attorney, Steven B. Vinick, immediately moved for a judgment of acquittal — asking the judge to rule before he presented his own case.

Prince George’s County District Court Judge Llamilet Gutierrez said she believed the state had not met its burden of proof — including offering clear evidence that the three escaped zebras had endured animal cruelty under the Maryland statute’s narrow definition.

When she read her verdict, Holly smiled and embraced Vinick.

The two took questions from reporters outside the Hyattsville courthouse, though Holly did not speak, pointing to Vinick and saying, “That’s what I pay him for.”

“We’re very happy with the outcome today,” Vinick said. “Mr. Holly has been a very successful businessman for many years, he’s contributed to this community. This was an unfortunate event that was not due to him being in any way criminal or even negligent.”

Vinick told reporters that court testimony showed Holly and his caretakers had done everything they could to “get those zebras back,” including building a corral on neighbor’s property and a trap gate at Holly’s estate.

But when asked when, where and how the zebras were captured, Vinick and Holly declined to comment. They also would not answer questions about where Holly’s zebras are now. Vinick would say only that they are “being very, very well cared for” and that Holly is “out of the exotic animal business.”

The trial was at least the sixth time Holly, 78, has faced criminal charges related to his animals, according to court records. In all but one of the previous cases he was found guilty. Those criminal cases, alongside hundreds of allegations of animal misconduct from local, state and federal animal welfare officials, should have prevented Holly from ever having his zebras, experts told The Washington Post in an investigation published this week.

Holly did not comment for that article, and again declined to answer questions Wednesday related to The Post’s findings.

The Post investigation found that Holly’s handling of his escaped zebras, which state and federal animal control officials called neglectful, was among hundreds of other allegations that he mishandled animals in his care during his decades in the animal business. Federal and Florida inspectors for years have accused him of violating animal welfare laws, in cases related to other exotic animal escapes, inadequate vet care and neglect, rusting and rotting cages and enclosures covered with feces. He also was cited in nearly every inspection report for poor record-keeping, which authorities said is consistent with illegal animal trafficking.

The Post also found that Holly for decades repeatedly failed to obtain all the permits required by local, state and federal agencies to breed, buy and sell wild and exotic animals in Maryland and Florida, two states where he operated animal business over the past 50 years, according to an examination of more than 1,000 pages of inspection reports and court records.

Holly’s three escaped zebras came to Maryland from Florida as part of a herd of 39, officials said.

But Holly did not obtain the permits required by Prince George’s animal control to have exotics in the county, officials said.

His permits and extensive history of alleged animal welfare violations were not part of the criminal case presented in court Wednesday, which focused primarily on a core question: Were the three escaped zebras deprived of food, water or shelter while they were running at large?

The state’s witnesses, including the lead animal control officer on the zebra case and the former chief of the animal control division, said Holly’s zebras did not appear to be malnourished.

Assistant State’s Attorney Ed Leyden argued in court that the zebras experienced animal cruelty, despite appearing relatively healthy, because it was inherently cruel to allow wild, exotic animals to run free in suburbia, where they posed danger to humans and themselves by wandering into yards and crisscrossing busy rural roads.

The escape, Leyden said, was “in and of itself … an act that precipitated all that flowed from it” — including causing undue stress on the missing zebras and one of their deaths.

“If you bring an animal of that nature, who is generally used to being in a wild setting, and you put them in a place that is completely different from that, well then you have a responsibility to go above and beyond to protect them,” Leyden said after the hearing. “And what is cruel, in our view, to the animals is to put them out in a place where every human scares them, where every encounter they have with a vehicle could be fatal to them and of course cause damage to traffic and people who the animals may encounter.”

While prosecutors presented evidence that a tree had fallen on the fence containing Holly’s zebra herd, crushing a 20-foot section that would have made it easy for the zebras to escape, the judge said she heard no evidence directly linking Holly and his actions to the fence’s disrepair.

It was not clear from testimony when the tree fell or how long Holly had been aware of the broken fence before the zebras got loose.

Records show the herd was unloaded before dawn at his Bellefields estate in mid-August 2021, but the county said it did not learn that three of the zebras had escaped until days later, when neighbors called to report a sighting of them in their yard. A few weeks later, a Girl Scouts forest groundskeeper discovered the dead zebra in the alleged snare trap.

Soon after animal control officials announced one of the missing zebras had died, a news crew in a helicopter hovering over the property owned by Holly notified authorities that it had spotted a second dead zebra. This time, the zebra was from the main herd corralled at his sprawling farm.

Hours later, animal control officials charged Holly with the three counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. The charges did not cover the animal deaths but rather the escape of the zebras. Holly through his lawyers blamed the deaths of the zebras on the helicopters over his property and a trap he said he didn’t set.

But after the trial, prosecutors said the necropsy for the second death was inconclusive and that there was no concrete evidence the helicopters caused the zebra’s death. Leyden also addressed confusion surrounding the alleged snare trap, saying there is conflicting evidence about who set it or whether the rope found looped around the zebra’s leg was a snare at all — including the discovery of old bones of a juvenile camel and small mammal under the zebra carcass, as well as the skeletons of two adult camels found elsewhere in the Girl Scouts woods near Holly’s property line.

U.S. Department of Agriculture records show Holly had camels at the Maryland farm.

After the trial Wednesday, Leyden said he was disappointed in the verdict — and added that the state’s attorney’s office thinks the remedy is stronger animal welfare laws in Maryland. Animal cruelty cannot be upgraded to a felony in the state unless there is proof of torture or bestiality, he said, making it difficult for prosecutors to bring serious cases against those who harm animals.

Leyden also said that Maryland law does not distinguish domestic animals from wild ones, and that prosecutors believe there should be a higher penalty for those who mistreat — or let loose — exotic creatures in the state.