OBERLIN – An Oakdale snake-breeder has been sentenced to a year in jail but his wife and co-defendent continues to give the law the slip.

David Beauchemin was given two years in jail with one year suspended after pleading guilty to aggravated and simple cruelty to animal charges.

Authorities said Beauchemin had been in the Allen Parish jail since May and will receive credit for time served, but that he must pay a $1,000 fine within 60 days of his release or he’ll be sentenced to the second year in jail.

Wildlife and Fisheries in March 2010 cited Beauchemin and his wife, Tawni Beauchemin, 23, on cruelty to animals charges and for failing to have permits to possess constrictor snakes that were more than 12 feet long.

Allen Parish sheriff’s investigators searched the Beauchemins’ property after a neighbor lodged a complaint that the couple was illegally selling exotic snakes on the Internet and shipping them from their home.

“The public complaint was issued after somebody gave the Beauchemins a dog for safe haven only to find it listed on the Internet a few days later for sale,” according to Wildlife and Fisheries.

Sheriff’s investigators found pythons at the residence, which were seized by Wildlife and Fisheries agents, the news release said. Officials found a home for the snakes at the Glade Herps Farm in Bushnell, Fla., after David Beauchemin pleaded guilty.

Beauchemin failed to show up for a court appearance in Allen Parish Court in September 2010, but was arrested in Texas after officers found “numerous constrictor snakes” during a traffic stop. Beauchemin was extradited from Texas in May.

Tawni Beauchemin is not in custody and is wanted on several outstanding warrants, Wildlife and Fisheries said, adding she is a “fugitive.”

Texas authorities found 79 boa constrictors, pythons and anacondas in a cargo trailer on the Beauchemins’ property, they said.