Missing antlers not enough to dismiss poaching charge
A judge has ruled that the loss of elk antlers recovered from an animal that was illegally killed is not enough to dismiss a felony poaching charge against a Shepherd man.

Judge Randall Spaulding said in a ruling issued Thursday that Jimmie Roberts had failed to show that the missing antlers would have helped his defense.

Spaulding also found that other evidence related to the antlers is sufficient to prove that the animal was considered a trophy under state law, including photographs taken by a state game agent.

Roberts' attorney, Jeff Michael, had argued in a motion to dismiss the charge and at a hearing last month that state game agents never disclosed that they had recovered the elk antlers, and the antlers then disappeared before trial.

At the hearing, two state game agents testified that the 6x6 elk antlers were measured by an expert and later were stored in an evidence room in Billings. The antlers were mistakenly sold to a recycling company a few months before Roberts' trial was set to begin in November.

The trial was postponed when Musselshell County Attorney Kent Sipe disclosed that the antlers were missing. The trial has been rescheduled for next month.

Roberts, 61, is facing charges related to the killing of two elk — a bull and a cow — on a Musselshell County ranch. He also faces related charges in Yellowstone County for the illegal killing of several mule deer bucks and an antelope buck.

sounds like he has a history of poaching and karma has finally caught up with him. If found guilty I hope they make an example out of him. This ruins it for those of us who play by the rules.