The person now faces federal costs after his elaborate cover-up failed, main federal brokers straight to his property
The GPS collar Pearson had tried to destroy led federal brokers straight to his property. {Photograph} by A. Falgoust / NPS
An aged man from Troy, Montana filed a plea settlement with the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Montana on Monday after a damning affidavit from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service particular agent alleged that he killed a grizzly bear and tried hiding the proof in November 2020. He was charged with tampering with proof, a felony, and failure to report taking a grizzly bear, a misdemeanor.
A press release from the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace and court docket paperwork obtained by Outside Life element how Othel Lee Pearson, 80, allegedly shot the sow grizzly bear together with his scoped .270 Winchester Mannequin 70 Featherlight, probably via a window in his house in Troy. USFWS particular agent Mona Iannelli delivered an affidavit on Thursday detailing how she obtained a report from a recreation warden of a grizzly bear carcass dumped on Pipe Creek Street simply south of Yaak, Montana on Nov. 23, 2020. The carcass had been “partially skinned and was lacking two entrance quarters and paws,” Iannelli says in her affidavit.
The sow was microchipped and had worn a GPS collar at one level, however the collar was lacking from the carcass. The sow additionally had two white ear tags and an inside lip tattoo. (That is commonplace follow for figuring out each wild and home animals.) However these have been additionally gone, having been “reduce from the bear.”
Federal wildlife brokers started connecting the dots 9 days later when a USFWS wildlife biologist discovered the GPS collar within the Yaak River on Dec. 2. Regardless of it being fairly beat up, biologists have been nonetheless capable of obtain incriminating information. Monitoring and well being information indicated with excessive accuracy the place and when the bear had died. This introduced them straight to Pearson’s property.
On Dec. 16, Iannelli and different federal brokers executed a search warrant on Pearson’s house. At first, Pearson denied killing the sow. However brokers discovered “pink snow” 30 yards from what they describe as a “taking pictures room,” or a room tacked onto Pearson’s home with open home windows and vantage factors that regarded out on numerous baited sights round Pearson’s property. Brokers discovered deer feed baggage, feed dispensers, salt blocks, and different proof of wildlife baiting, in addition to a spent .270 casing on the ground, though no direct cost is made that Pearson baited the sow.
Animal tissue samples present in Pearson’s home and in his truck, which Iannelli experiences had lately been washed, matched with the sow. So did a big bag of meat, labeled “Ham,” that brokers present in Pearson’s freezer.
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This doubtless would have been enough proof to carry costs towards Pearson. However the proof doesn’t cease there, based on Iannelli’s affidavit. On April 27, 2022, nearly a 12 months and a half after brokers searched Pearson’s house, a hiker allegedly discovered a trash bag stashed in a hole tree on some Forest Service land adjoining to Pearson’s property. The contents of the bag? Ten grizzly bear claws and a single white ear tag with the quantity 934, all of which have been linked to the identical sow via forensic evaluation.
Pearson faces a most of 20 years in jail and $250,000 in fines for the felony cost, together with a most of six months in jail and a $25,000 tremendous for the misdemeanor cost. The district court docket will think about his plea settlement on Feb. 15. As a part of the settlement, Pearson’s sentence would encompass three years of probation and an $8,000 tremendous, and federal brokers wouldn’t examine or prosecute Marcia Pearson (Othel’s spouse, based on an obituary for his late brother) for her alleged involvement within the incident. Additionally they wouldn’t prosecute Othel or Marcia for any crimes stemming from a second grizzly bear cranium discovered on Nationwide Forest land close to their property, though Othel must cooperate and share details about the cranium with investigators.
