Man sentenced to 5 months for Smokies elk poaching

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK — A judge sentenced a man to five months behind bars and ordered his rifle — autographed by a NASCAR legend — destroyed following his conviction for poaching an elk in the national park.
 Bruce Wayne Cromer Jr., 35, of Stovall, shot and killed a bull elk last November within the national park in Haywood County, court records show. Rangers found the elk dead along the edge of a pasture in the Cataloochee Valley. Cromer pleaded guilty in June.
Cromer on Thursday received a sentence of 150 days imprisonment. In addition, the gun Cromer used to shoot the elk, a Browning .270-caliber rifle autographed by Richard Petty, was ordered by the court to be forfeited to the government and destroyed. Cromer also was ordered to pay $8,384 in restitution to the national park, lost his hunting license for two years and was banned from all national parks for two years.
Authorities took Cromer into custody immediately after sentencing, said assistant U.S. Attorney David Thorneloe, who prosecuted the case. Cromer was in the Madison County jail late Thursday, online records show.
“The evidence on the record was that Mr. Cromer shot at something he stated he believed was a deer,” said assistant U.S. Attorney David Thorneloe, who prosecuted the case. “But evidence we put on today showed that was not a reasonable belief.”
Even if Cromer had shot a deer, Thorneloe said it still would have been criminal because it wasn't deer season, and hunting in national parks is forbidden.
“It still would have been poaching, but a little less serious because of the protected nature of the elk and the efforts the park has made to reintroduce them,” Thorneloe said.
Elk were once common in the Smokies and the rest of the Southern Appalachians. Hunting and habitat loss eradicated them by the early 19th century.
The park reintroduced 25 elk to the valley in 2001 with a $1 million project funded by the Friends of the Smokies and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The bull elk shot and killed by Cromer was one of the original herd.
Park wildlife specialists could not be reached Thursday. A report last fall, however, showed there were about 110 elk in the park. A total 19 calves were born last year through mid-October, 16 of which survived. The elk have become a popular park attraction, drawing hundreds of onlookers during the fall mating season. At last count, 12 of the original 25 elk herd remain, Thorneloe said, with some dying from natural causes and other unknown reasons.
The charge against Cromer marked the park's first case of elk poaching, and prosecution of poaching cases is “relatively rare,” Thorneloe said.
“I think every case is different. Sometimes they are motivated by financial reasons, but I don't think that's (Cromer's) case necessarily,” he said.

Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

Another criminal/poacher bites the dust.  Awesome!
 
Maybe the story will deter like-minded boneheads from committing wildlife crimes in the future whether it be in a National Park or on public or private land.
 
Take care and Good Hunting!
 
Best Afield,
 
Steve

The loss of his hunting rights for only 2 yrs seems a bit lite for me.  Should have been longer since he tried to lie about it from the beginning by saying he was shooting at a deer.

Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

I agree... Not much of a deterrent there.  I believe you should lose your hunting rights for life if you are caught and convicted of poaching.  Can't you tell I hate poachers?  And, I feel the same way about trespassers.
 
Take care and Good Hunting!
 
Best Afield,
 
Steve

Oh yeah, pretty smart lying saying he thought it was a deer. Since when is poaching not a crime if it's a deer. Regardless, I agree with you guys the time don't match the crime. Anyone caught blatantly disregarding the laws needs more than a slap on the wrist. It's good that the took his gun, but maybe they could have auctioned it off and donated the money to the RMEF or someone, along with a short note on how the gun was acquired for the auction. I think that would be a pretty cool conversation piece.
Steve Albers

Yep, I sure hate to think that gun went into a furncae when it could make a few dollars for wildlife or something similar!!!

Mike Stephenson
aka Topgun----30-06

Hang em HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!. No excuses for poachers. They give us all a bad name and go totally against what real Sportmen stand for. He should be banned for life.

The freshest tracks still have feet in them.