Cd’A man jailed for unlawfully killing trophy bull elk

COEUR d’ALENE — A man who killed a “well-known” trophy-class bull elk with a rifle during an archery-only season must spend time in jail and give up his hunting privileges for life, according to the Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. 

In June, a jury convicted Coeur d’Alene resident Joel P. Rose, 62, of unlawful killing, possession or wasting of wildlife, a felony. 

First District Judge Casey Simmons sentenced Rose this week to five years in prison for the crime, the maximum possible sentence, then suspended the sentence and placed Rose on supervised probation for three years. Casey also ordered a lifetime revocation of Rose’s hunting privileges. 

Rose will serve 30 days in jail as a condition of his probation. He must also pay a $30,000 fine and $5,000 in restitution to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. 

Authorities said Rose killed the elk last September, near his residence on private property in the Wolf Lodge area. 

“The elk’s unique antler configuration made it an easily recognizable and well-known animal in the area that other hunters had pursued for several years,” Fish and Game said in a news release. 

When Rose brought the elk’s head, hide and antlers in for taxidermy work, a bullet lodged in the hide indicated that the animal was shot with a firearm, according to prosecutors. 

A forensic analysis of the elk hide revealed two distinct bullet entrance wounds but only one exit wound. Though the hide appeared to have an arrow entrance wound, the lack of tissue trauma showed that the arrow wound was made after the elk died, prosecutors said. 

Idaho Fish and Game conservation officers obtained a warrant to search Rose’s residence, where investigators found a rifle equipped for long-range shooting and with a silencer. Ballistic analysis showed that the rifling characteristics from this rifle were consistent with the bullet recovered from the elk hide.   

“Additional evidence revealed that Rose had been specifically targeting the trophy-class bull elk during the archery-only season, which overlaps the rutting period for elk in North Idaho,” a news release said. “After the elk was killed with a rifle, Rose posed in photos with the elk with an arrow protruding from the carcass.” 

In Idaho, the unlawful killing, possession or wasting of wildlife with a single or combined damage assessment of more than $1,000 is a felony.