Hunter who shot another pleads guilty

A 56-year-old Caldwell, Idaho, man who accidentally shot another hunter in the St. Joe River area has pleaded guilty to careless discharge of a firearm, Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds said Monday.

David Eugene Spicer is still in jail, Reynalds said, with Fish and Game violations pending for the Nov. 21 incident in the St. Joe area. The victim, 38-year-old Bruce Lavern Jensen, has been taken out of the Intensive Care Unit at Kootenai Medical Center, but will likely remain in the hospital for at least three weeks.

Police reports said Spicer mistook Jensen for a deer. Jensen, of Post Falls, was wearing camouflage when he took a bullet to the right hip from Spicer’s 7 mm magnum gun.

Spicer was originally booked into jail on charges of aggravated assault. Reynalds said he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge and is being held in Shoshone County Jail on $10,000 bond.

The shooting was the fourth hunting accident in the St. Joe area this season.

In October, 43-year-old Steven Seppala was shot to death while hunting with four relatives near Avery, Idaho. Reynalds said the department still has no leads in Seppala’s death.

Those who were hunting with him have taken – or will take – a polygraph test, Reynalds said.

Two other hunting accidents have been reported in the area. One hunter was shot in the foot by a friend and a horse was killed after a hunter mistook it for an elk.

This season’s rash of hunting accidents has Reynalds campaigning for a law to require hunters to wear orange during rifle season. He’s looking for a legislator to carry the bill for him.

“I understand this is a touchy subject,” Reynalds said. “A lot of Idahoans are individualistic and don’t like to be told what to do. I’m one of those.”

But with the increasing number of hunters in Idaho forests, Reynalds said, “it’s time for hunter’s orange.”