What started out as a narcotics investigation here in the 400 block of 60th Street in Fairfield quickly turned into something else. While officers were serving a search warrant they found what they're calling five severely abused pit bulls.  Investigator Mathew Romei says the animals had definitely been in the fighting pit. "These dogs, it was very evident that they had been fought, were continuing to be fought and they'd been fought recently," he recalls.

As for what will become of the animals, Joe Murphy, the investigator for the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, says because of the violence in their past, the outlook isn't good.  "It's been instilled in these dogs. It would be very difficulty to break them of that behavior. Right now, they're a danger to other animals," Murphy says.

The good news, says Murphy, is that Lewis' arrest is the first felony cruelty case to be prosecuted out of the city of Fairfield. "They could have very well stopped at a municipal court cruelty charge, but they did the right thing and it's in district court," he says.

In court Tuesday, Robert Lewis says he didn't do it.  His attorney Charles Salvagio says the police need to find the people who did. "If I felt like he was guilty I wouldn't be his attorney. There is certainly a lot of evidence that leads us to believe that another person was abusing these dogs," says Salvagio.