An attorney says mental illness has plagued a man accused of stabbing a puppy and leaving it to die in a suitcase in Florida.

Thirty-one-year-old Brendan Evans is being held at the Broward County jail on multiple animal cruelty charges. He was arrested Nov. 15, about a month after police say he stabbed the pit bull and stuffed it into a suitcase.

Rescuers named the puppy Ollie. The dog died at an animal hospital.

In Sun Sentinel report , Evans' attorney, Sarah Anne Mourer, said her client sought treatment for mental illness at over a dozen hospitals in Florida and Virginia.

A police report says investigators found mutilated animals in his freezer, knives covered in blood and notes referencing demons in Evans' home.

Evans faces up to five years in prison.