http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20088868

A Grand Junction hunting guide has been charged in federal court for allegedly conspiring to conduct illegal mountain lion hunts in Colorado and Utah.

According to a charging document, Marvin Ellis worked with four other hunting guides to track and trap mountain lions and bobcats days before bringing clients in to kill the animals. On two occasions, according to the court documents, Ellis and the other guides trapped mountain lions in leg-hold snares to ensure the lions couldn't escape before a paying client could be brought to hunt them. In one of those instances, a guide also shot a mountain lion in the leg to keep it from fleeing, according to the court filing.

In three other instances, Ellis and the other guides are accused of holding bobcats and a mountain lion in cages before releasing them for a customer. Ellis and the guides are also accused of taking clients on mountain lion and bobcat hunts without the proper licenses and on one occasion working to sneak the carcass of a mountain lion illegally hunted in Utah back into Colorado.

It is legal to hunt mountain lions and bobcats in Colorado and Utah with the proper licenses. In both states, though, animals treed or trapped must be killed immediately or released. It is against Colorado law to use leg-hold traps on public land.

Ellis is charged specifically with conspiring to violate the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to transport across state lines any animal hunted in violation of the originating state's law. He could face up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

He was charged Tuesday in federal court in Denver. On Thursday, Ellis' attorney filed a "notice of disposition," a procedural move indicating that Ellis intends to plead guilty.

Ellis' attorney, Edward Nugent of Grand Junction, did not immediately return a call for comment.

According to the charging document, Ellis worked for a hunting guide located in Mack, west of Grand Junction. That guide — identified only as "Guide #1" in the charging document — also employed two other guides and his two daughters, according to the court document. None of the other guides are named in the document.

The charging document cites incidents beginning in December 2007 and ending in February 2010.

In March 2010, KKCO 11 News in Grand Junction reported that federal wildlife agents served a search warrant at a Mack hunting guide's home. The guide, Chris Loncarich, runs a guide service that is particularly known for mountain lion hunts. Photos on Loncarich's website show numerous clients holding up mountain lions after successful hunts, which cost clients between $3,500 and $5,000.

Federal authorities have not confirmed whether Ellis' charges are connected to the search warrant, which appears to be sealed. A phone call to the number listed on Loncarich's website was not immediately returned.

These game law violations just keep on and will until these people start doing serious jail and/or prison time to make an example of them!

Oh good lord, now the RSA canned lion hunting is making its way here? Cage em, let em go when the client arrives, call it fair chase?