Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:57 AM MDT

GREEN RIVER -- Investigators say local sportsmen in the Kemmerer area in southwest Wyoming helped locate and convict a Texas man who admitted to trying to poach a mule deer earlier this month.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokeswoman Lucy Wold said Micah S. Morales, 30, of Jasper, pleaded guilty in Lincoln County Circuit Court on April 16 to shooting twice at a mule deer with his .22 rifle from his vehicle.

The poaching attempt occurred on the evening of April 9 alongside Highway 189 south of Kemmerer.

Wold said Morales, a contract worker for Total Western, was in the area working on a boiler overhaul at the Naughton Power Plant at the time of the shooting.

Game Warden Andrew Countryman said the case was solved with the cooperation of local sportsmen and wildlife officers.

He said wardens were alerted to the case after a sportsman reported seeing the incident.

Countryman said Morales was with another contract worker at the time of the shooting. Wardens interviewed the worker, who admitted he was with Morales and another employee when the incident occurred.

The co-workers told wardens he was confident Morales had hit at least one deer, but no carcass was found at the site by searchers a week later.

Morales was charged with attempting to hunt/kill wildlife from a highway and wanton destruction of big game. He was ordered to pay a $5,060 fine, to serve 12 days in jail and he had his hunting/fishing privileges in Wyoming and 31 other states revoked for nine years.

Glad they got him...

HaHaHa....Hehehehe...

Sorry! I can't help but find this funny.

What an Idiot! Maybe he'll learn something from this experience. Like maybe "DON'T DO IT AGAIN".

+1 on Bobby Tomeck's sentiment, but it does not surprise me, there are still plenty of folks in this country, Not Just Texans Either, that would have tried the same stunt.

I'm glad the concerned sportsman thought enough to pick up the phone and report it.

I sure wish we had judges here in NY that treated wildlife offenses like they did in this Wyoming case. That fine, jail time and lengthy license revocation has some real deterrent value to it.

I wish they'd ream people like this in GA too.... fines are light, jail time rare, and there's no real deterrent value.

This is what happens when good COs do their job! I once called in a pair of poached pronghorn remains that I found in Utah. The CO actually said, "how do you know they were poached". My response: "You're right....the loving couple must have been very emotionally attached to die together that way".

I thought the fine/penaltiy was about right to. The state has attempted legislation to confiscate vehicles and firearms, but have steered away from going that far.

In Australia this type of thing happens 3 times a day and most people could not give two hoots about it.

A hunter running to a warden and spilling the beans about someone else would most probably be considered worse to many than the original offence.

Thats just the way it is here I guess.

Not meaning to stir the pot, but a lot of how the situation is handled in probably most states, is in direct proportion to where the animal ranks in the individual states priority list.

With the higher ranked species garnering more attention than lower ranked species. JMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Futrdoc:
I wish they'd ream people like this in GA too.... fines are light, jail time rare, and there's no real deterrent value.

Most places outside of the west are too lenient.

How did they get his hunting privileges revoked in nine other state?
Confiscating the guns sounds like a good idea to me. Better if the law lets them be sold at auction

quote:

How did they get his hunting privileges revoked in nine other state?

Years ago states started to sign a pact to reciprocate violations and carry the punishment to all who belong to the pact. And it was 31 other states for nine years!

Ohio has a good summary and links to the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact for those who are interested:

Ohio DNR Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact Link

You guys know why he didn't try this in Texas don't you. Most of Texas is private property and if you get caught poaching by the property owner you might just get your ass shot!

Seeing how everything on a landowners property is considered "property" , The land owner could just say that he was protecting his property from a person who was trespassing.

txhunter77, I believe if you will check into it, Texas is a member of that compact now.

Texas is not in, nor is much of the Northeast.

quote:

Originally posted by erict:
Texas is not in, nor is much of the Northeast.

well im kinda glad to see that

My apologies, I thought that Texas had joined, sorry to see that they haven't.

Crusher, why do you feel that Texas should not join?

I am curious too, Crusher.

I would think the more states involved, the greater the deterrent. And does any state really want convicted poachers from other states coming in to hunt?


Tim