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Outfitter sentenced in illegal hunting of bobcats and mountain lions
By KIRK MITCHELL | [email protected]
PUBLISHED: September 6, 2016 at 12:22 pm | UPDATED: September 6, 2016 at 3:34 pm
A Grand Junction man who helped arrange illegal bobcat and mountain lion hunts in Utah and Colorado in which outfitters shot the animals in the paw or put radio transmitters on their necks to guarantee success was sentenced Tuesday to three months in prison.
Nathan Simms of Grand Junction was also sentenced in U.S. Federal Court in Grand Junction to two years of probation and must serve six months of that sentence in home detention.
Simms had pleaded guilty to eight misdemeanor counts of illegal game hunting and agreed to serve six months in a federal prison.
Christopher Loncarich, the owner of the now-defunct outfitting business that employed Simms, is serving a 27-month sentence in federal prison.
The outfitters would trap and maim mountain lions to make it easier for hunting customers to kill the animals. The outfitters also placed radio transmitters on the big cats to make it easy to track them, court documents show.
In one instance, the outfitters placed a leg-hold trap on a mountain lion?s paw to slow it down. On another occasion, the outfitters shot a mountain lion in the paw to make it easier to track.
Simms acted as an assistant guide between 2007 and 2010, helping hunters from Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Connecticut kill mountain lions.
Officials say hunters paid up to $7,500 for the hunting tours.
TONY MANDILE
How To Hunt Coues Deer
By KIRK MITCHELL | [email protected]
PUBLISHED: September 6, 2016 at 12:22 pm | UPDATED: September 6, 2016 at 3:34 pm
A Grand Junction man who helped arrange illegal bobcat and mountain lion hunts in Utah and Colorado in which outfitters shot the animals in the paw or put radio transmitters on their necks to guarantee success was sentenced Tuesday to three months in prison.
Nathan Simms of Grand Junction was also sentenced in U.S. Federal Court in Grand Junction to two years of probation and must serve six months of that sentence in home detention.
Simms had pleaded guilty to eight misdemeanor counts of illegal game hunting and agreed to serve six months in a federal prison.
Christopher Loncarich, the owner of the now-defunct outfitting business that employed Simms, is serving a 27-month sentence in federal prison.
The outfitters would trap and maim mountain lions to make it easier for hunting customers to kill the animals. The outfitters also placed radio transmitters on the big cats to make it easy to track them, court documents show.
In one instance, the outfitters placed a leg-hold trap on a mountain lion?s paw to slow it down. On another occasion, the outfitters shot a mountain lion in the paw to make it easier to track.
Simms acted as an assistant guide between 2007 and 2010, helping hunters from Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Connecticut kill mountain lions.
Officials say hunters paid up to $7,500 for the hunting tours.
TONY MANDILE
How To Hunt Coues Deer
