November 27, 2017 - Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens in Grayson County recently closed out a trio of poaching cases involving several trophy class white-tailed deer, all of which were taken illegally during the 2016-17 season. According to a TPWD report released on Nov. 17, the outlaws involved in the cases were ordered to pay a combined total of $34,954.80 in civil restitution fees alone for their involvement in killing three bucks with a combined Boone and Crockett score totaling more than 535 inches.
The report says numerous charges were filed in the cases ranging from taking deer without landowner consent (a state jail felony), hunting without landowner consent, hunting from a vehicle, hunting from a vehicle, hunting without a license, hunting from a public road, no hunter education, illegal means and methods, improperly tagged deer and hunting out of season.
The biggest of the three bucks was a 202 inch 19 pointer killed last December by John Walker Drinnon of Whitesboro, the report says. According to TPWD, Drinnon originally told wardens he shot the buck in Oklahoma but eventually confessed to killing it with a rifle from a public roadway in Grayson County, an archery only county. Civil restitution on the deer is more than $18,000, the report says.
TPWD also named Timothy Kane Sweet of Sherman and Brian Eugene Gulp in separate poaching cases. According to the report, Sweet claimed he shot a 19 pointer scoring 177 B&C in Fannin County, but game camera photos identified the deer as a Grayson Co. buck. According to the report, Sweet told wardens "he made a poor shot on the deer that didn’t draw blood, but returned to the area later that evening to inspect. When the buck jumped up and began to run off, Sweet said he shot it five or six times illegally at night with a pistol." Civil restitution on the buck was nearly $10,665.
The report says Culp killed a Grayson Co. 10 pointer scoring 157 last season using tags from a Super Combo license he was not qualified to possess. Civil restitution on that deer totaled more than $6,240.
The full report is available at tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20171117a.
