Idaho Man Sentenced in Bighorn Deadhead Case

[realunlucky]

He picked it up in Montana, took it to Idaho, and lied about where it came from. He knew what he was doing was illegal. Bighorn sheep are special, the penalties need to be higher than they would be for a deer or an elk.

What makes them so much more special?

 

[Sand Wrench]

What makes them so much more special?

Scarcity for one thing. Less than 70,000 of them out there, vs about 400,000 elk and 4 million mule deer. Scarcity creates economic and cultural incentives for people to poach them, which justifies a higher level of legal deterrence. $11,000 and a 2 year break from hunting isn't going to ruin this individuals life, but it sends a strong message to others who might be tempted to violate the wildlife code. Rule of law will not prevail without actual consequences.

 

[Rich M]

When you allow someone to kill a sheep - in any way you can imagine, from shooting, stabbing, dropping off a tall building, electrocuting, or running it down with a vehicle - then it gets handed off to a buddy and it’s ok?

Maybe I’ve just been around more idiot young guys than most, but if you combine a heavy farm bumper, with the relatively small sheep, and in a few seconds of poor judgement it might have seemed like an easy way to get a big ram.

The teenage boy excuse of, “You didn’t see me do it, so you can’t accuse me of doing anything wrong,” works in some families, but not ours. If you don’t want to be called a duck, don’t walk like a duck, or talk like a duck.

That was the first thing I thought - he killed it and then went back later for the head. No evidence, no proof, but it sure seems viable.

 

[Idaboy]

That was the first thing I thought - he killed it and then went back later for the head. No evidence, no proof, but it sure seems viable.

^^^^This is one of the exact raeaons these laws exist...Guy shoot wrong species, wrong sex by accident and doesn't reach out to fish and game, or flat out intentionally kills/poaches, then goes back days/weeks/months/yrs later.

I understand the argument that more scarce species should have stiffer penalty, but should that really matter? Maybe, that's more a theoretical argument to debate....Perhaps the financial black market gain is higher and thus stiffer penalty. You commit wildlife crime=you do the time.....throw the frickin book at em

 

[TSAMP]

I heard the guy is going back to court to fight it on the grounds that the deadhead was found in HIS canyon.

 

[doc holiday13]

its odd he's saying its roadkill but it doesn't state that he actually shot the damn thing...

 

[Pacific_Fork]

A lot more to the story is told here -

Man fined for illegal possession of bighorn sheep

A man has lost his hunting license for two years and must pay more than $11,000 in penalties and restitution after DNA testing revealed the bighorn sheep he claimed to have salvaged as roadkill in Idaho was really harvested illegally in Montana.

cdapress.com

Being that they say it was killed by a vehicle it Seems like a rather harsh punishment. But a quick google search also shows this dude was arrested up here in 2019 on a fugitive from justice out of Florida. So maybe karma follows him around now…

 

[Ucsdryder]

A lot more to the story is told here -

Man fined for illegal possession of bighorn sheep

A man has lost his hunting license for two years and must pay more than $11,000 in penalties and restitution after DNA testing revealed the bighorn sheep he claimed to have salvaged as roadkill in Idaho was really harvested illegally in Montana.

cdapress.com

Being that they say it was killed by a vehicle it Seems like a rather harsh punishment. But a quick google search also shows this dude was arrested up here in 2019 on a fugitive from justice out of Florida. So maybe karma follows him around now…

So he didn’t kill it. Amazing how many people make assumptions and then run with it.

Seems ridiculous. A felony…2 year hunting ban…11,000 in fines? Come on…

 

[180ls1]

So he didn’t kill it. Amazing how many people make assumptions and then run with it.

Seems ridiculous. A felony…2 year hunting ban…11,000 in fines? Come on…

I agree, until I heard he was a career criminal...

 

[Idaboy]

So he didn’t kill it. Amazing how many people make assumptions and then run with it.

Seems ridiculous. A felony…2 year hunting ban…11,000 in fines? Come on…

Throw the book at him, he did not have to do any of the actions he chose

 

[Ucsdryder]

Throw the book at him, he did not have to do any of the actions he chose

Yep. We should hang him from a tree for picking up a deadhead.

 

[Idaboy]

Yep. We should hang him from a tree for picking up a deadhead.

Whatever current sentencing guidelines dictate, I support

 

[TaperPin]

Things are usually more interesting than what we see on the surface, which is why it’s fairly reliable to say if something seems fishy, it usually is. When someone gets busted for cheating on a spouse and say it’s the first time, we all know it wasn’t. There is no such thing as a first time shop lifter - it’s the first time they got caught. If someone lies in a small way for small gain, they usually have no problem telling larger lies for larger rewards. If someone will commit fraud while looking you in the face, they are even less trustworthy when nobody is watching. If a coworker talks crap about others behind their back, they talk about us the same way. If someone is ok committing one kind of felony, they usually have no problem violating other laws that are just as serious.

It’s a valuable lesson for teenage boys to learn - if they don’t, we end up with adults using teenage reasoning to defend adolescent behavior.

 

[Erict]

So he didn’t kill it. Amazing how many people make assumptions and then run with it.

Seems ridiculous. A felony…2 year hunting ban…11,000 in fines? Come on…

His judgement is withheld and if he completes probation he can file for dismissal. He is not convicted of a felony and paid no fines. Fines are for criminal convictions but in this case he was ordered to pay a $10k civil penalty. When an option, the civil route allows parties to avoid criminal convictions but doing so can come at a price higher than a criminal fine would have been.

 

[IdahoElk]

Idaho needs the same law as MT, Problem solved.