A Colorado hunter facing charges of illegal hunting in Utah has been convicted in Nevada federal court of illegally killing a desert bighorn sheep seven years ago, a federal prosecutor said Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Perry said a jury deliberated six hours Thursday afternoon and evening before convicting Barrett Wynn, 30, Mancos, Colo., of a misdemeanor charge of killing the sheep on a tag drawn by a Nevada woman.The sheep was killed in December 1982 in the Muddy Mountain Range near Lake Mead, 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas.
Wynn faces up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine when he is sentenced April 10 by U.S. Magistrate Larry Leavitt.
Wynn also is charged in Utah with guiding an Indiana man on an illegal trophy deer hunt. Authorities have accused the pair of killing a buck out of season with no permits, then taking only the head.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charge Jan. 26 in Kanab.
The Nevada violation was discovered when fish and game officials conducted a routine inspection of a taxidermist studio in McCammon, Idaho, in 1987 and found the sheep's horns.
The taxidermist told authorities he got the horns from Wynn, but further investigation revealed the sheep was killed on a tag belonging to a Nevada woman, the prosecutor said.
According to law, the person who draws the tag must kill the animal, she explained.
Perry said trial testimony showed that Wynn killed the sheep after the woman repeatedly shot at it and missed.