Hunter Submits Deer Photo to Facebook Whitetail Page, Within 10 Minutes He's on His Way to Losing Hunting License
A disgraced hunter has been stripped of his hunting license and sentenced to prison time after photos of a whitetail he shot were posted on Facebook.
The saga began when Jeff Phillips, operator of a Facebook hunting page called Star City Whiletails geared towards hunters in the commonwealth of Virginia, was sent photographs of a hunter with a dead whitetail deer last November.
Phillips posted the pictures, sent from Richmond resident Jason Walters, initially not realizing anything wrong with the “showstopper” deer.
Users in the group quickly realized the deer’s identity thanks to its unique antlers.
“I posted on my page, and within probably 10 minutes, somebody that follows my page sent me a private message, with some pictures that a wildlife photographer in that Richmond area had taken of this deer,” Phillips told Fox News Digital.
The animal was a local legend known as the Hollywood Buck.
Hunters and other fans of the animal flooded the page with their own pictures of the deer, named after Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, a location it was known to frequent. Although the original post appears to be removed, Phillips’ page reposted the photographs, seen below, with an explanation of the issue.
The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources caught wind of the problematic hunt and quickly jumped into action.
“The primary suspect sent photos of himself with the nontypical 29-point buck to a Facebook page, claiming to have killed the buck in Prince Edward County, Virginia, with a muzzleloader.,” the agency posted to Facebook in December of last year.
“Members of the hunting and wildlife viewing communities alerted DWR Law Enforcement that they recognized the buck pictured as one that frequented the Hollywood Cemetery in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond, expressing concern that the buck had been killed illegally. The ‘Hollywood Cemetery buck’ had been photographed frequently and was recognizable due to his large, unusual antlers.”
Conservation police officers with the Virginia DWR made contact with Walters and determined through a conversation with him that the famous deer was killed illegally.
The agency confirmed it also gathered evidence related to the poaching.
“The illegal killing of the Hollywood Cemetery buck is a serious violation of Virginia’s wildlife laws and will be a priority for the Conservation Police Officers assigned to the investigation until all leads have been exhausted, all evidence has been collected, and those involved have been charged,” DWR Deputy Chief Maj. Ryan Shuler said on the post.
Walters was hit with 20 misdemeanors for the killing, all of which he pleaded guilty to, Fox reported. He was sentenced to 80 months in prison, but the judge suspended 76 of the months. He is also responsible for paying back $13,000 in fines and fees.
The would-be sportsman was also stripped of his hunting license, which was revoked for 100 years. Although 75 years of that was suspended, the order still keeps Walters out of the deer woods for over two decades.
Alan Proffitt, another person involved in the famous deer’s death, pleaded guilty to six charges.
Proffitt was given a $250 fine and six months in jail and was barred from holding a hunting license in the commonwealth for six years.
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