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A Houston man was charged with illegally killing a tame deer in a park. The deer's severed head was found in the man's freezer, along with two improperly tagged deer carcasses.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6150753.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At least no firearms seem to have been involved.

Moron.

- Jim

Deer are territorial, and male deer are aggressive. I don't doubt the late Mr. Buck sensed that something was out of the ordinary on his turf.

Deer cause more human deaths and injuries than any other wild animal, rivaling livestock and domestic dogs. Unfortunately, most of the deer cause death and injury by being the first on the scene at a vehicle collision.

- Jim

Well if there's any bright side to this sad saga, it's that there's some cases where two heads aren't better than one.

Couldn't they also charge him for leaving the meat to rot?

No. Under Texas law, you can only be charged with one offense based on one criminal act.

He also committed criminal trespass, probably illegal carry of a knife longer than 5.5 inches, criminal mischief, and theft (of the deer head).

- Jim

Most of me says that this person is a goober and deserves to rot in jail....


but then, a tiny little part of me says, he killed a deer with a knife, and it kinda ups his manliness compared to some of the "managed" hunts Ive seen.

Russell wrote:The guy killed a tame deer that let visitors walk up and scratch it under its chin.

That's not very manly. That's girly, wimpish, and pathetic.

The guy deserves to rot in jail and meet Big Bubba.

The deer attacked the guy when he was with in 15 feet. He didn't just walk up to it and kill it. It ran him down and gored him. Still no defense to his actions, but I don't know of many folks that would of been gored by an animal and then stabbed it to death.

Do you say the same thing about managed hunts where the deer are hand raised and fed off a feeder their entire lives?

Im not defending his actions either and agree that the person in question is a piece of trash.

seamusTX wrote:No. Under Texas law, you can only be charged with one offense based on one criminal act.

Wouldn't leaving the meat be a separate criminal act from killing the deer and stealing the head?

Aside from the deer's likely objections to the other offenses had it not been killed, any of the three are actions independent of the other two.

I really am not a lawyer, and I don't completely understand this doctrine of lesser included offenses. Maybe a real lawyer can explain it better.

(One interesting example of this is that people are charged with resisting arrest or eluding pursuit, but not with the offense for which they were being arrested in the first place.)

In other states, if someone commits, say armed robbery, the authorities will "throw the book at him" and charge him with robbery, assault, weapons violations, jaywalking, and anything else they can come up with.

The exception for Texas is that someone can be charged with state and federal offenses based on the same act. You see that when a felon is charged with the state crime that he committed, plus a federal charge of felon in possession of a firearm.

Anyway, if they get the guy dead to rights on a felony, what difference do the lesser charges make?

- Jim

seamusTX wrote: Anyway, if they get the guy dead to rights on a felony, what difference do the lesser charges make?

- Jim

I'm not a laywer, either, but I am an ex-cop from Louisiana. We would include lesser charges on a felony arrest and the DA would use them as bargaining chips for plea deals.

For example, in this case, the person could be charged with felony criminal trespass, possession of a knife longer than x inches, possibly possiession of a concealed weapon, and whatever other wildlife charges there may be. When he went to trial, the jury could consider each charge and he could be sentenced separately for each charge.

So the DA would use that to pressure for a deal. If they were convicted on all charges, and were sentenced to consecutive sentences, then each charge would add onto the time. Or, if they pled to a lesser charge, the others would be dropped.

SeamusTX I have charged people with multiple violations no problem from the same act. The Penal Code even states that you can do so.

As I said, I don't understand why the police and prosecutors do what they do. A police officer tried to explain it to me the way I repeated above.

The police need only one charge to get an arrest warrant, or to arrest for a crime committed within view. The DA can bring all the charges he wants later.

- Jim

I was the keeper for that animal for several years (his name was Brutus, BTW). I was okay with the ostrich, bison and birds of prey but that animal would make me pause everytime I entered the enclosure. One year, he hurt a doe pretty bad and I and another indiv. were attempting to move her out to another area for treatment. She was hanging out by the gate so we figured we would ease up and haze her out the gate. Brutus was occupied by a dog on the sidewalk. Doe was uncooperative (she was stuck pretty bad in the hindquarteres) and Brutus noticed something was up and came over quite quickly-silent, I might add. When he appeared in brush, every hair on his body was standing on end and his head was lowered. Needless to say we then left and came back later on vehicles. Doe was eventually moved out and treated.

That deer was by no means 'tame'. He tolerated people as long as they were on the other side of the fence. I had hoped Brutus had gotten a lick in. He was one tough deer, despite the reasons that brought him to the park.

I always tried to educate the public I encountered that captive deer can be more dangerous than those raised in the wild with no exposure to humans. Brutus had no fear of humans and was quite happy to defend his turf. (Note to those who walked their dogs there...he didn't really want to play with your dog as he walked the fence with you.)

As someone mentioned, trespass charges should be applied. This however, is a park on federally owned land (COE). I would expect that to factor in and up the jail time.

Tass