Elk season means time to go to jail for Pendleton man
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, August 29th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PORTLAND – A man from the Pendleton area will be spending elk season in jail for three years after being convicted of poaching in what the Oregon State Police is calling a wildlife crime spree. The Oregon Legislature passed a measure in 2018 that created stiffer penalties and allows prosecutors to elevate poaching crimes from misdemeanors to felonies.
Walker Erickson, 28, of Pendleton, pleaded guilty to 22 charges including illegally killing deer and elk, leaving game animals to waste, and trespassing over a period of 18 months. In the summer of 2020, OSP received a call to the Turn In Poachers line. Fish and wildlife troopers began gathering information and evidence that resulted in serving a search warrant at Erickson’s residence.
Troopers seized six sets of deer antlers, three sets of elk antlers (including a 7×7 bull elk), a rifle, a bow, and meat. Erickson has been fined a total of $75,000 for all of the animals he poached. He will also serve 14 days in jail for the next three elk seasons. In addition, Erickson forfeited the rifle and bow he used to commit the crimes, all trophies, and all game parts. That included a freezer full of meat that the court ordered OSP to provide to the Blue Mountain Wildlife Center for its raptor rehabilitation program.
This case illustrates the first significant application of new sentencing guidelines established by the Legislature in 2018. Senior Assistant Attorney General Jay D. Hall, the state’s first anti-poaching resource prosecutor for fish and wildlife crimes, said the game has changed for poachers.
“Elk season is now jail season,” Hall said. “All of this conduct, if it had occurred only a year before, before the legislature created these felony-level poaching crimes, he would be facing only misdemeanor sentencing.”
Hall prosecuted the case for the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Office. The sentencing was handed down the first of this month.
Photo provided by OSP shows a small portion of the evidence seized during the search of Erickson’s property.
