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Poacher Gets Severe Punishment for Third Offense

By Owen Schroeder of The Leaf-Chronicle

Some people never learn that poaching is an illegal act, even when they have previously been caught and convicted of the crime. Such is the case with Jimmy Prater, 32, of Waynesboro, Tenn.

According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Prater was recently found guilty of his third poaching offense and sentenced to 80 days in the Wayne County Jail. In addition, he was ordered to pay a $3,200 fine and lost his hunting privileges in Tennessee for the remainder of his life.

His current offenses included spotlighting deer, hunting during a closed season, hunting with a firearm during the archery season, falsifying a kill tag and hunting on a revoked license.

If Prater ignores the court order that has banned him from hunting for life, he will be returned to jail where he will serve a much longer sentence.

The TWRA report revealed that Prater enjoyed killing big bucks and then removing their antlers for trophies. Dr. Mike Stockdale, a forensic specialist, tied Prater's trophies to deer carcasses through DNA analysis.

Prater was convicted of his second poaching offense in 2005 and appealed the conviction all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court, where the conviction was upheld. Prater was aware of the Supreme Court decision when he committed his third offense, which violated the court order from the second offense revoking his hunting privileges for one year.

Wildlife Officer Tim Aston, along with fellow wildlife officers in southern Middle Tennessee, had been watching Prater and found that he had killed a deer with a rifle on the opening day of the 2007 archery season. Prater took the deer to a local checking station in order to obtain a kill tag.

Prater had another trophy deer that he had taken illegally and wanted to get mounted. Tennessee requires that all deer taken to a taxidermist must be accompanied with a valid kill tag.

Dr. Stockdale was able to confirm through forensic procedures that the deer checked in during the archery hunt had been shot with a rifle and that the antlers taken to the taxidermist were not the antlers from the deer that was checked in.

Prater's trouble with Tennessee game laws go back to 1994 when he was convicted of spotlighting deer and hunting deer in a closed season.

"We were watching Mr. Prater for a long time and with the help from local sportsmen and residents providing information about his movements, along with the excellent work of Dr. Stockdale, we were able to obtain one of the most severe convictions that I have ever seen for poaching," Aston said.

Owen Schroeder is the outdoors columnist for The Leaf-Chronicle. He can be reached by e-mail at owenschroederjr@bellsouth.net.