RICHMOND — Two hunters pleaded responsible Thursday within the unlawful killing of the “Hollywood buck,” an imposing 29-point deer that for years roamed this metropolis’s ornate Accomplice burial floor.
Jason Walters of Richmond entered responsible pleas to twenty misdemeanors in Richmond Normal District Courtroom associated to the unlawful searching of three deer, together with the buck recognized in Richmond and past as a frequent customer to historic Hollywood Cemetery.
Walters was sentenced to 6 months in jail, with three months suspended, and ordered to pay $2,500 in fines and $11,000 in “alternative prices.” He additionally misplaced his searching privileges for twenty-four years.
“I believe he’s simply comfortable to place this behind him and transfer ahead and ensure the restitution is paid,” mentioned Walters’s lawyer, Gregory R. Sheldon.
Alan Proffitt, additionally of Richmond, pleaded responsible to 6 misdemeanors, all associated to the Hollywood buck, which was killed in December. Officers referred to him as an confederate. Proffitt was ordered to pay $1,250 in fines and serve 30 days of home arrest. His searching privileges had been revoked for six years.
The penalties characterize “one of many strongest enforcement outcomes in latest reminiscence” for wildlife crimes, the Virginia Division of Wildlife Sources mentioned in a written assertion saying the pleas.
“The appreciable penalties included will definitely be a deterrent to future wildlife crime and may give the neighborhood a stage of consolation that the sort of crime is taken very critically within the Commonwealth,” it mentioned. “Searching is a treasured custom in Virginia. Unethical and legal habits tarnishes the popularity of the game and offers a foul identify to those who have interaction in it lawfully.”
The division’s regulation enforcement workforce executed 10 search warrants because it investigated the case, with help from Chesterfield County and Richmond police, the cemetery and Richmond’s Division of Parks and Recreation. The division mentioned it’s going to work with “the outside neighborhood” and others to “decide one of the simplest ways to memorialize this unbelievable animal.”
Residents close to the cemetery estimated that the Hollywood buck was about 8 years outdated. They referred to as him Prince, guessing he was the offspring of one other regal buck they’d dubbed King. Searching with firearms is prohibited within the metropolis of Richmond and within the cemeteries the place the Hollywood buck was recognized to roam.
Walters posted photographs of himself with the useless Hollywood buck on the Star Metropolis Whitetails Fb web page. He mentioned he shot it in rural Prince Edward County, about 70 miles southwest of Richmond. However hunters and wildlife photographers acknowledged the deer’s distinctive 29-point rack.
Walters was arrested in January on prices that included trespassing, failing to examine and tag a deer and littering, based on court docket data. The fees additionally associated to 2 different bucks that authorities mentioned Walters poached from part of Richmond that features neighborhoods, cemeteries and parkland.
This article by Laura Vozzella was first revealed by The Washington Submit on 15 August 2024. Lead Picture: The Hollywood Cemetery buck, also referred to as Prince, was killed in December. (Ben King).
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