A lifetime hunting suspension didn’t deter a Brownsville-area man who was sentenced last week to 10 months in the Linn County Jail following an Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division investigation.
Raymond Edward Hillsman, 58, was sentenced Oct. 13 to 10 months in jail by a Linn County Circuit Court judge following the investigation that began in January 2009.
According to state police, last winter, OSP Fish and Wildlife troopers and Linn County deputies responded to a Brownsville address following a report that Hillsman was trespassing on private property while attempting to retrieve his beagles. Hillsman was already being investigated by OSP Fish and Wildlife for allegedly hunting rabbits with his beagles on neighboring private timber land.
Hillsman has a lifetime hunting suspension and is a convicted felon stemming from a 1999 racketeering conviction. He was convicted of hunting bears with dogs, killing bears illegally and selling the bear gall bladders, police said.
When Linn County deputies arrived to the trespassing complaint in Brownsville they found a shotgun and ammunition in his vehicle, according to the OSP. He was arrested for felon in possession of a firearm and criminal trespass with a firearm. Soon after this incident, OSP Fish and Wildlife troopers served a search warrant at Hillsman ‘s residence.
He was subsequently also charged with violation of a lifetime hunting suspension.
Hillsman’s 10-month sentence in Linn County Jail consists of the following: 30 days for felon in possession of firearm; 180 days for violation of a lifetime hunting suspension and 90 days for criminal trespass with a firearm.
Hillsman will also be placed on 36-months supervised probation with restrictions not to possess any game meat or any part of game mammal or fur-bearing mammal; not to engage in any kind of hunting or be with anyone who is hunting; and, not to train any dogs for hunting or live with anyone who owns dogs for hunting.
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Four Lane County-area men are facing criminal charges involving wildlife following the killing of four branch antlered bull elk on Oct. 20 south of Cottage Grove.
Oregon State Police (OSP) Fish & Wildlife Division troopers praised the help of a landowner in the ongoing investigation.
During the late morning hours of Oct. 20, four bull elk described as a 3-point, 5-point, 6-point, and a 6×7-point, were unlawfully killed on private property south of London Road about three miles south of Cottage Grove.
As the investigation began to unfold, Senior Troopers Martin Maher and Marshall Maher of the OSP Fish & Wildlife Division heard reports from area landowners that hunters had trespassed on private lands to retrieve the poached bull elks, police said.
The slain animals were part of a year-round herd that reached up to 70 elk.
Police subsequently cited four suspects as follows:
– John K. Atwater, 50, of Cottage Grove, was cited on four counts of unlawful taking of bull elk, and two counts of borrowing an elk tag;
– David Pruitt, 78, of Creswell, was cited for loaning an elk tag and aiding in a game offense;
– Homer Rhodes, 74, of Cottage Grove, was cited for hunting on the enclosed land of another, Loaning an Elk Tag, and Aiding in a Game Offense
– Christopher Stevens, 35, from Cottage Grove, was cited for Aiding in a Game Offense
Additional charges may be pending. All four were cited to appear in Lane County Circuit Court on November 19, 2009.
The unlawfully killed four bull elk were salvaged by the troopers and the meat was taken to the Eugene Mission.