License revoked over poaching

COEUR d’ALENE – A Sagle man lost his deer, lost the rifle he shot it with, lost his hunting license for two years and will spend two months in jail after a federal judge on Monday in the U.S. Courthouse here accepted his guilty plea to poaching at a game refuge.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge imposed the sentence Monday after 44-year-old Richard Turnbull of Sagle pleaded guilty to poaching Monday, a day before trial was scheduled to start.

According to court documents, Turnbull shot a white-tail buck in a marshy area of the Kootenai Refuge in Bonners Ferry on Nov. 24. As he was driving away from the site with the deer in the back of his pickup, Turnbull met refuge worker Wayne Wilkerson and, later, supervisor Aaron Drew, who said the deer was shot in an area of the refuge closed to all but waterfowl hunting.

Turnbull also was found to be a felon in possession of a firearm.

The guilty plea, however, focused on the poaching charge. Lodge sentenced Turnbull to 180 days, but suspended all but 60. Still, Turnbull must surrender his hunting privileges for two years and also forfeit the deer, the Finnish-made rifle and scope.