Poacher fined $10,000 for illegally taking moose

Thomas Gill made sure to take the head and antlers of the trophy North Idaho bull moose that he killed illegally three years ago.

The 47-year-old Everett, Wash., man retrieved a small portion of the meat, leaving the rest to rot.

Gill was sentenced last week in Coeur d’Alene’s First District Court to two years probation as part of a five-year suspended prison sentence, and he was ordered to reimburse the state $10,000 for the trophy bull he illegally killed.

At his Oct. 17 sentencing, District Judge John Mitchell agreed with deputy prosecutor Ken Brooks that Gill should pay the 10 grand fine that, according to Idaho law, is meted out for poaching the state’s trophy big game animals.

Gill’s attorney, Craig Zanetti, had argued that because Gill was charged under a different statute, he should pay $1,500 instead.

“The statutory penalty associated with this … is $1,500,” Zanetti said. “(It) states that the illegal killing, or illegal possession, which Mr. Gill has entered his plea to, for a moose is $1,500.”

No one formally accused Gill of poaching a trophy animal, Zanetti said.

“That’s where the rub was initially,” Zanetti said.

Mitchell however, parsing through the statutes and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s definition of a trophy, said Gill had not shot a cow moose, but a trophy bull, therefor obviously violating the bigger offense.

“A bull moose is what causes this to be a trophy big game animal,” Mitchell said. “There can be no other interpretation.”

Gill shot the animal with a bow and arrow in September 2014, north of Rathdrum, without a license or permit. He returned to Washington with a portion of the meat and made a European head mount from the bulls’ skull and antlers that he kept in his son’s room.

Gill was part of a Washington game department investigation into the poaching of two mule deer near Curlew in northeastern Washington.

He and his son killed the deer with a rifle outside of the rifle season, in an area that was closed to mule deer harvest, according to court records. Game officers in their investigation learned of the poached moose and notified authorities in Idaho.

In the local investigation, a Rathdrum friend of Gill’s cooperated with Fish and Game officers and provided evidence to prove Gill poached the bull moose north of Rathdrum and wasted the meat.

Gill will also have his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges revoked for four years and must pay $700 court fines and fees as well as a $250 processing fee, and Mitchell ordered two years probation.