- Location
- Burke Mountain & Pavilion Lake, B.C.
By TATABOLINE BRANT
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: October 28, 2006)
An Anchorage taxidermist convicted of illegally killing two Dall sheep last winter in a popular sheep-viewing area along the Seward Highway was socked Friday with six months in jail, $25,000 in fines and probation restrictions designed to keep him off the Internet and away from hunting.
Robert McConnell's defense lawyer protested that some of the penalties for his client were "cruel" and "draconian."
Superior Court Judge John Suddock ordered that for the next 10 years McConnell is not allowed to own a computer or be on the Internet. He's not allowed to practice taxidermy or own guns. And if he wants to leave the road system south of Anchorage, he's got to have the permission of his probation officer.
Suddock stipulated those terms of McConnell's sentence after hearing testimony Friday that strongly suggested McConnell had illegally sold animal parts and had helped poach more than just the two sheep he was busted for. The judge called McConnell a hunting addict and likened his punishment to an intervention.
"Some sentence has to be imposed that ensures this gentleman is not going to hunt again for some time," he said.
The two full-curl Dall sheep McConnell is convicted of poaching were killed in mid-February on the slopes along the Seward Highway near Indian. The area is known for its dense, habituated sheep population that motorists often stop to watch and photograph. State wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott said the animals are drawn to the area by minerals in the ground, giving the public a "world class" sheep viewing area that is easy and inexpensive to get to.
"They're viewed by hundreds of people a day in the summer," Sinnott testified Friday.
Authorities say McConnell's hunting buddy, Douglas Perfetto, shot the two rams with McConnell's help. The pair were busted after a hiker saw McConnell carry the animals' heads and capes down to the highway and jump into Perfetto's pickup.
The sheep killings outraged the public, Sinnott told the court Friday. He said his office got several calls from wildlife enthusiasts and hunters alike after the news broke.
Neither of the men was immediately forthcoming with investigators, court papers show. But Perfetto ultimately decided to make a deal with prosecutors and testify against his friend. He was sentenced in September to 17 days in jail and fined $7,200.
Perfetto, a mechanic, testified Friday that he met McConnell in the summer of 2005, at a car dealership in Anchorage where McConnell worked. In the course of buying a Ford pickup from him, McConnell "asked if I hunted," Perfetto said. "I said yes."
Over the course of the next six months, the two men killed six sheep in addition to the two they were charged with, Perfetto testified. Authorities believe the animals were taken illegally.
Perfetto testified McConnell also bragged about selling animal parts, such as hides, horns and bear gallbladders, sometimes using the Internet to communicate with the buyers. Perfetto said he saw more than a dozen sets of goat horns in McConnell's garage.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see he was collecting animal parts to sell them," assistant attorney general Roger Rom told the judge Friday.
Perfetto admitted under pointed questioning by defense attorney Joe Josephson that he pulled the trigger most of the time on his sheep hunts with McConnell, but the state argued McConnell was the one who was really in charge.
McConnell scoped out the areas where the sheep were shot, and always took the hides and horns after the animals were killed, the state argued. And McConnell was no stranger to how the system worked, Rom said -- he had a history of wildlife violations, and has also worked as an informant for the federal government on wildlife investigations in Anchorage.
One such investigation, "Operation Taxidermy," lasted from 1984 to 1987, according to testimony Friday by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Special Agent Stephen Tuttle. McConnell was brought into the operation as part of his probation for a wildlife conviction Outside. His role was to operate a legitimate taxidermy shop and introduce undercover agents to hunters who mentioned illegal activities, Tuttle said. The years-long sting resulted in several arrests.
"His work led to the conviction of dozens of people," Josephson said in his effort to convince the judge to go easy on McConnell.
"I am sorry for what I've done," McConnell said in a brief statement to the judge. "I certainly have learned my lesson. I'm at the mercy of the court."
But Suddock could not get past McConnell's long history of game violations -- his first was about two decades ago -- or the picture the state painted of the six months McConnell spent with Perfetto.
The judge described the six-month period as "going on a tear" and asked if he was supposed to believe "that this one snapshot is all there is?"
Suddock also noted that the sheep taken in this case were part of a particularly valuable and fragile resource enjoyed by the public. He likened the killing of the two rams along the Seward Highway to the 1985 slaying of Star the reindeer. The reindeer was kept in a roomy cage in downtown Anchorage for visitors to enjoy until someone decided it would look better in their freezer.
Josephson argued that McConnell's sentence should be similar to Perfetto's, but Suddock said he could only consider the facts before him, not the deal another defendant got.
Suddock ordered McConnell to turn himself in on Monday to start serving his jail time.
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: October 28, 2006)
An Anchorage taxidermist convicted of illegally killing two Dall sheep last winter in a popular sheep-viewing area along the Seward Highway was socked Friday with six months in jail, $25,000 in fines and probation restrictions designed to keep him off the Internet and away from hunting.
Robert McConnell's defense lawyer protested that some of the penalties for his client were "cruel" and "draconian."
Superior Court Judge John Suddock ordered that for the next 10 years McConnell is not allowed to own a computer or be on the Internet. He's not allowed to practice taxidermy or own guns. And if he wants to leave the road system south of Anchorage, he's got to have the permission of his probation officer.
Suddock stipulated those terms of McConnell's sentence after hearing testimony Friday that strongly suggested McConnell had illegally sold animal parts and had helped poach more than just the two sheep he was busted for. The judge called McConnell a hunting addict and likened his punishment to an intervention.
"Some sentence has to be imposed that ensures this gentleman is not going to hunt again for some time," he said.
The two full-curl Dall sheep McConnell is convicted of poaching were killed in mid-February on the slopes along the Seward Highway near Indian. The area is known for its dense, habituated sheep population that motorists often stop to watch and photograph. State wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott said the animals are drawn to the area by minerals in the ground, giving the public a "world class" sheep viewing area that is easy and inexpensive to get to.
"They're viewed by hundreds of people a day in the summer," Sinnott testified Friday.
Authorities say McConnell's hunting buddy, Douglas Perfetto, shot the two rams with McConnell's help. The pair were busted after a hiker saw McConnell carry the animals' heads and capes down to the highway and jump into Perfetto's pickup.
The sheep killings outraged the public, Sinnott told the court Friday. He said his office got several calls from wildlife enthusiasts and hunters alike after the news broke.
Neither of the men was immediately forthcoming with investigators, court papers show. But Perfetto ultimately decided to make a deal with prosecutors and testify against his friend. He was sentenced in September to 17 days in jail and fined $7,200.
Perfetto, a mechanic, testified Friday that he met McConnell in the summer of 2005, at a car dealership in Anchorage where McConnell worked. In the course of buying a Ford pickup from him, McConnell "asked if I hunted," Perfetto said. "I said yes."
Over the course of the next six months, the two men killed six sheep in addition to the two they were charged with, Perfetto testified. Authorities believe the animals were taken illegally.
Perfetto testified McConnell also bragged about selling animal parts, such as hides, horns and bear gallbladders, sometimes using the Internet to communicate with the buyers. Perfetto said he saw more than a dozen sets of goat horns in McConnell's garage.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see he was collecting animal parts to sell them," assistant attorney general Roger Rom told the judge Friday.
Perfetto admitted under pointed questioning by defense attorney Joe Josephson that he pulled the trigger most of the time on his sheep hunts with McConnell, but the state argued McConnell was the one who was really in charge.
McConnell scoped out the areas where the sheep were shot, and always took the hides and horns after the animals were killed, the state argued. And McConnell was no stranger to how the system worked, Rom said -- he had a history of wildlife violations, and has also worked as an informant for the federal government on wildlife investigations in Anchorage.
One such investigation, "Operation Taxidermy," lasted from 1984 to 1987, according to testimony Friday by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Special Agent Stephen Tuttle. McConnell was brought into the operation as part of his probation for a wildlife conviction Outside. His role was to operate a legitimate taxidermy shop and introduce undercover agents to hunters who mentioned illegal activities, Tuttle said. The years-long sting resulted in several arrests.
"His work led to the conviction of dozens of people," Josephson said in his effort to convince the judge to go easy on McConnell.
"I am sorry for what I've done," McConnell said in a brief statement to the judge. "I certainly have learned my lesson. I'm at the mercy of the court."
But Suddock could not get past McConnell's long history of game violations -- his first was about two decades ago -- or the picture the state painted of the six months McConnell spent with Perfetto.
The judge described the six-month period as "going on a tear" and asked if he was supposed to believe "that this one snapshot is all there is?"
Suddock also noted that the sheep taken in this case were part of a particularly valuable and fragile resource enjoyed by the public. He likened the killing of the two rams along the Seward Highway to the 1985 slaying of Star the reindeer. The reindeer was kept in a roomy cage in downtown Anchorage for visitors to enjoy until someone decided it would look better in their freezer.
Josephson argued that McConnell's sentence should be similar to Perfetto's, but Suddock said he could only consider the facts before him, not the deal another defendant got.
Suddock ordered McConnell to turn himself in on Monday to start serving his jail time.
