A former Alabama veterinary student pleaded guilty to Tuesday in connection with the disappearance of more than a dozen horses she promised owners she would rehome for them.

Fallon Danielle Blackwood, a 28-year-old Boaz woman, entered her guilty plea just as her trial was set to begin. A jury was seated Monday, and opening statements were set to begin on Tuesday.

Instead, Blackwood pleaded guilty to one count of bring property into the state under false pretenses, which is a Class C felony, and 12 counts of fourth-degree receiving stolen property.

Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said Blackwood was sentenced to 31 months in prison and one year on each misdemeanor charge, but the sentence was suspended, and she was placed on five years of supervised probation.

Blackwood graduated from Tuskegee University Veterinary School but was never granted a license by the state licensing board.

She was a student at the time she took 13 horses from various people, Casey said, and those horses were never seen again.

As part of her probation, Blackwood was ordered to have no contact with equine either personally or professionally, and she was ordered to pay restitution to eight victims.

Blackwood was first arrested on the Alabama charges in 2019 while she was at a Blount County rodeo. She had previously been arrested in another state on similar charges and pleaded guilty to a felony crime.

According to non-profit Stolen Horse International NetPosse, Blackwood pleaded guilty in North Carolina to a felony for obtaining horses under false pretenses before selling them to horse slaughter. A Martin County judge ordered Fallon Blackwood, of Alabama, not to own or be around horses [or other animals] even at rodeos for two years.

Blackwood was sentenced to probation, fines, and fees of just over $1,600.

Casey said she could not say what happened to the horses after Blackwood took possession of them, but Stolen Horse International believes she sold them to kill buyers in the horse auction business and that most of the horses are believed to have been slaughtered in Mexico for meat.

The non-profit said 63 horses from six states were reported to Stolen Horse International, NetPosse. “Additionally,’’ the group said in a press release, “NetPosse has since learned of a great many other horses taken by Fallon Blackwood.”

One of the victims, Lindsay Rosentrater, then living in Georgia, told her story to AL.com several years ago.

Rosentrater and her husband in January 2018 found they were expecting a child and were not in a solid financial position to care for their aging horse, Willie.

The horse was almost 15 years old and suffered from ailments that prevented him from being ridden.

Additionally, the farm where Willie was being kept was going through a transition and all of the boarded horses had to be out by the end of the month.

“I felt like I didn’t have the time he truly deserved so I went out in search of a forever and loving retirement home for him,’’ Rosentrater said.

“I posted an ad to my personal Facebook page, horse related Facebook groups and Craigslist. My ad was titled: ‘ISO Forever Loving Home For Sweet Retired Appendix Gelding.’”

Within 24 hours, Rosentrater said, Blackwood contacted her after seeing the ad on Craigslist and said she had a horse farm in Boaz.

“She said she was very interested, was a vet student and had a barrel (racing) horse that needed a companion,’’ Rosentrater said. “It seemed too good to be true.”

The two women spoke by phone and arranged for Blackwood to travel to Georgia to meet Willie. That introduction took place on a cold, rainy Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, at a Cherokee County, Ga. barn.

Blackwood showed up with a truck and horse trailer.

“My heart dropped,” Rosentrater said.

“I was under the impression she was coming to just meet Willie and I but in reality, she did drive about three hours to get to us so I could understand her strategy as we weren’t a quick drive from her home in Alabama. She decided to bring the trailer in case she really liked him. It seemed logical to me considering how much it would be to fuel her truck.”

Blackwood told Rosentrater that she wanted to take Willie with her that day. “That caught me off guard,’’ Rosentrater said. “I was surprised and explained how I wasn’t emotionally, mentally or professionally prepared. I hadn’t planned for him to leave that day as I was anticipating a visit only.”

Rosentrater, who obtained a college degree in Equestrian Studies and is by all accounts an educated horse owner, quickly drew up an impromptu contract that stated, in part, if Blackwood was unable to keep Willie for any reason, he would be returned to Rosentrater.

The transaction was completed, and Blackwood loaded up Willie.

“He started screaming for me down the road. I just sat in the barn and cried,’’ Rosentrater said. “But I had to dust myself off. I was going into a new chapter, and I was doing what was best for him. It was the selfless, right thing to do.”

Rosentrater and Blackwood texted over the coming days and weeks.

“Every couple of days I checked in,’’ Rosentrater said. “But I asked her for a photo of Willie, and she wouldn’t send me one. I asked her repeatedly.”

Rosentrater said her suspicions deepened.

First, she used Google Earth to look up the address of the Boaz barn, but there was no barn at that address. Next, she confided in a friend who worked in horse rescue who immediately recognized Blackwood’s name.

“She pulls up Facebook and a private rescue group had flagged her name for doing business will kill-buyers,’’ Rosentrater said. “I immediately started bawling my eyes out.”

Rosentrater reached back out to Blackwood and said she had made a terrible mistake, and though she had given Willie to Blackwood for free, she was willing to buy him back.

“She wouldn’t respond,’’ she said. She texted Blackwood again and told her, “I knew what her gig was.” Later that night, Rosentrater launched a Facebook page called “Finding Willie.”

“Overnight, it blew up,’’ Rosentrater said. “I was contacted by other horse owners with the same story. It was horrifying to me.”

Blackwood saw the Facebook Page and pleaded with Rosentrater to take it down, she said.

There was back-and-forth conversation between the two, with Blackwood claiming she had given Willie to a family for their young children. Eventually, all communication ceased.