A Jennings man has been sentenced for wildlife hunting violations including taking geese during a closed season.
United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown says that 22-year-old Trevor Istre of Jennings was sentenced to 5 years of unsupervised probation and a $3,000 fine for taking migratory birds with the aid of a motor vehicle, taking migratory birds during a closed season, and taking migratory birds in violation of state law.
According to the Western District of Louisiana, as part of Istre's probation, his hunting, and fishing privileges were suspended for 3 years. Three other individuals involved in the illegal activity were previously fined a total of $2,470.
The trial for Istre was set to begin February 10, 2022, but Istre pleaded guilty to those violations on the day of his trial, they say.
Officials say the charges stemmed from an investigation into illegal hunting activity on Mardi Gras day, February 16, 2021 when a Wildlife Officer from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s K9 team encountered a group of individuals shooting geese from a state highway on private property. The subjects fled from the area and avoided capture that day.
Agents began an investigation into their illegal hunting activities and located spent shotgun shell casings and apprehended one crippled goose. Their investigation continued and the violators were identified.
Officials say four of those violators were repeat offenders with alleged histories of wildlife violations in state and federal courts on Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge. In total, 29 geese that were illegally taken were seized.
Istre previously pleaded guilty to federal wildlife violations at the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge in December 2019 and had state wildlife violations in November and December 2019 and had already paid $3,904 in fines to multiple jurisdictions for hunting violations since he had become an adult.
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