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Show Four Hunting Guides Sentenced In 1993 Cougar Drag Trail Case PANGUITCH Four southern Utah professional hunting guides, each convicted in August of a third degree felony for wanton destruction destruc-tion of protected wildlife, were sentenced Oct. 26 in Sixth District Court in Panguitch. They had been charged with illegally setting up a "canned" cougar kill for William Mehl of Pennsylvania on Feb. 4, 1993, the last day of Mehl's five day, not-guaranteed, hunt. They were convicted of roping and dragging drag-ging a cougar from its capture in an illegal kill area for release in area where it could legally be killed by their client. "You're just out of business for the next 36 months," said Judge K.L. Mclff after pronouncing sen tence on Chris Robb, 30; Shawn McLcroy, 24; Brandon Robb, 28 and Shawn Robb, 28, all of Red Creek Outfitters in Paragonah. "I intend to treat all of you the same," the judge said. "Each of you is sentenced zero to five years in the Utah State Prison; each is fined the sum of $5,000. I'm going to suspend imposition of the sentence and place you on 36 months probation." pro-bation." He then reduced their fines to $1,000 each and said they would not have to spend time in jail. He also ordered 50 hours of community commun-ity service for each man. "The privilege for each of you to hunt small game, cougar and bear is revoked during the time of your probation," he added, and while the Division of Wildlife Resources which brought the original charges against the four men has the right to lengthen the revocation, Judge Mclff encouraged the agency to abide by his ruling. The felony conviction automatically auto-matically carries with it a restraint against the use of firearms for the term of probation. Doug Messerly, Southern Region Investigator for the DWR, told the court the three Robbs and McLeroy would be able to guide hunts but could not possess firearms. Sentencing followed review by the judge of pre-sentence reports (See Hunting Guides Sentenced On Page 5-A) Four Hunting Guides Sentenced From Page 1 from Adult Probation and Parole which he ordered following their Aug. 9 conviction. Kent Winward, Ogdcn, attorney for the guides, said he will take the case to the Utah Court of Appeals. Prior to sentencing, he presented four motions, (1) a motion to arrest judgment, (2) a motion to reduce the criminal offense to a lesser charge, (3) an application for a certificate of probable cause and, (4) a motion for a new trial. Winward argued that the statute on which the prosecution based its case is unconstitutionally vague, depriving his clients of a defense, and that the jury had not received adequate instruction and definitions, defini-tions, particularly of "capture" and "injure". But prosecutor Wallace Lee countered by saying that the court had already dealt with Win-ward's Win-ward's argument during the course of the trial. Winward also argued that a video tape used by the prosecution had been edited from nearly three hours to 22 minutes of selected portions, something the defense was not privy to until it was revealed by cross examination during the trial. He also said that DWR officers had "staged" pictures and moved evidence to make a better picture and that at least seven individuals had walked up and down the path of the video being produced that purported to show a cougar drag trail in the snow. Lee countered that the jury had only to find that the defendants (1) did take a cougar, (2) used a prohibited hunting method, (3) captured and injured a cougar, (4) acted knowingly, intentionally or recklessly or for pecuniary gain, and, (5) did so in Garfield County. Judge Mclff denied the . motion.for arrest of judgment. On Winward's motion to reduce the felony charges to misdemeanors, misde-meanors, he argued that conviction would deprive the guides of their livelihood, creating undue hardship. Winward tried to bargain with the court for his clients, "If they could do jail time and still keep their licenses, I'm sure they would prefer that. Taking licenses will hit them where it hurts." "This case has been unusually full of politics," prosecutor Lec said, adding that he had not wanted to try the case and had offered the four men the opportunity to plead to misdemeanor charges and they had refused. "The defendants gambled and lost," he said. Winward countered by saying that 'We don't want to nullify the jury's verdict. The reason we went to trial was because my clients wanted to retain their right of pursuit." The only thing a reduction reduc-tion to a misdemeanor would do," he said, "is allow the Robbs to continue con-tinue their livelihood." "I'm not going to reduce the offense," said Judge Mclff as he denied the motion. He also denied Winward's third and fourth motions, mo-tions, based essentially on the same arguments as previous motions. |
