A Mona, Juab County, man has begun serving multiple concurrent sentences in the Millard County Jail after being found guilty in a non-jury trial on 15 counts of state fish and game violations.
Donovan Yates, 31, was fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail on each of the counts, the sentences to run concurrently. Yates will also pay restitution of $380 for each of four bobcats that were found to be illegally in his possession and will be on probation for 18 months.He had been charged with seven counts of failure to check traps every 48 hours (as mandated by law), four counts of unlawful methods of trapping and four counts of unlawful possession of bobcats.
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources personnel were told by an informer that Yates had set illegal traps in the Middle Mountain and Crystal Mountain areas of southwestern Millard County. The traps were found and officials began a weeklong surveillance at the site before Yates appeared. He was arrested after he took the animals to a pickup truck to skin them.
It was reported that the bobcats had been held in the traps without food or water for several days.
Yates was ordered to forfeit all trapping equipment and was restricted from applying for trapping, hunting or fishing licenses. Whether his pickup truck will be confiscated will be determined at a court session June 28. The law allows the state to possess any equipment that is used in violating fishing and hunting regulations.