A Letcher man was sentenced to prison for his role in the unlawful taking of a bald eagle and the unlawful use of pesticide in South Dakota.
Theodore Nelson, 69, of Letcher, was found guilty of Unlawful Taking of a Bald Eagle and Unlawful Use of Pesticide after a two-day jury trial in April 2016.
Nelson was sentenced to 8 months in custody on the Unlawful Taking of a Bald Eagle charge, with 6 months to run concurrent with a prior federal tax evasion sentence and 2 months to run consecutive, and one year of supervised release, with a condition that Nelson must pay $2,500 in restitution.
Nelson was also sentenced to 30 days in custody on the Unlawful Use of Pesticide charge to run concurrent with the sentence imposed on the above count. Nelson was ordered to pay a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $35 for both offenses.
The conviction stemmed from incidents between January 1, 2015, and May 12, 2015, when Nelson, who is a landowner in Sanborn County, without being permitted to do so, knowingly and with wanton disregard for the consequences of his actions, injected a poison, Carbofuran, also known as Furadan 4F, into the carcasses of cows in order to kill predators, including coyotes.
As a result of Nelson’s actions, area animals, including coyotes, and an adult Bald eagle, died of Carbofuran poisoning. Laboratory results from the National Fish & Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, confirmed that the eagle died of Carbofuran poisoning, after eating coyote carcasses that were poisoned with Carbofuran poisoning in its system.
Nelson was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
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Key Facts
- State: South Dakota
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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