A younger Michigan man at present dealing with fees in Wyoming for an city deer-poaching spree has additionally been accused of capturing a cow in 2023, in response to the Powell Tribune. Prosecutors tacked on the extra felony cost final week and mentioned the cow appeared to have been shot with an arrow (or a number of arrows) and left to waste, identical to the mule deer that have been discovered rotting in Cody over the summer season.
The accused, 20-year-old Michigan resident Josh Wielhouwer, is now wanting on the one felony cost for property destruction along with the 18 misdemeanor counts for the 9 mule deer he allegedly poached and left to rot in 2024. Park County Circuit Court docket Choose Joey Darrah, who’s overseeing the case, elevated Wielhouwer’s bail Friday to $43,500 in mild of the extra felony cost, the Tribune studies. Wielhouwer’s bail had initially been set at $36,000, however he was unable to pay it and has been held on the Park County Detention Heart since his arrest in September.
“I do take into consideration that the defendant had beforehand turned himself in, however now we now have a felony cost,” Darrah mentioned Friday, in response to the Tribune. “It’s a complete totally different ball recreation.”
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The preliminary felony case towards Weilhouwer revolves round allegations that he went on a mule deer killing spree in downtown Cody over the summer season. Between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4, two bucks, six does, and one fawn have been discovered killed and left to rot inside metropolis limits. Many of the mule deer carcasses have been scattered across the Park County Advanced, the place the library and different county buildings are positioned, they usually all had broadhead wounds, in response to an affidavit from the Wyoming Sport and Fish Division.
Native recreation wardens consider they caught Wielhouwer within the act of poaching deer with a compound bow on the Park County Advanced on Sept. 4, however he fled the scene, in response to charging paperwork obtained by the newspaper. (The Park County clerk couldn’t instantly present the general public courtroom information related to Wielhouwer’s ongoing felony instances when contacted by Outside Life Tuesday.) Park County prosecuting legal professional Larry Echile defined within the charging paperwork that Wielhouwer went on Fb shortly thereafter to submit, “Catch me in the event you can.”
Wielhouwer would flip himself in simply 5 days later, nevertheless, after investigators tied him to the car that was used within the alleged crimes. Sport wardens defined in an affidavit that they positioned a silver Ford Fusion on the Park County Advanced on Sept. 4, they usually noticed an arrow contained in the car that matched one discovered on the advanced days earlier. They known as the Ford’s registered proprietor, who mentioned that Weilhouwer had been driving his car whereas he was out of city. And on Sept. 7, they obtained a warrant for Weilhouwer’s arrest.
Picture courtesy Park County Sheriff’s Workplace
Wielhouwer turned himself in on Nov. 9 — his legal professional mentioned he flew again to Cody from Michigan to take action. He was subsequently charged with 18 misdemeanors: 9 counts of taking a recreation animal with out a searching license and 9 counts of wanton destruction of an enormous recreation animal. The state-recommended bail of $36,000 was equal to the restitution quantity Wielhouwer can be ordered to pay if convicted (at $4,000 per deer). Wielhouwer reportedly pleaded not responsible to these fees in September.
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However state investigators saved wanting into the crimes, which led them to the lifeless cow that was discovered on a ranch north of Cody in Sept. 2023. The sport warden who responded to that incident discovered “holes within the carcass that seemed to be from an arrowhead,” in response to an affidavit submitted by the Park County Sheriff’s Workplace and bought by the Tribune. The affidavit additionally included a ranch worker’s description of the autos he’d seen on the street that day, and one of many autos was a silver Honda with Michigan plates. Authorities say one other hunter reported seeing the identical car, and that Wielhouwer is the registered proprietor of a silver Honda with Michigan plates. In addition they say they discovered a broadhead in Wielhouwer’s car that matched a bloody broadhead recovered from the ranch the place the cow was killed in 2023.
Wielhouwer stays on the Park County Detention Heart, and the Tribune studies {that a} preliminary trial for the felony cost has been set for Nov. 19. The subsequent courtroom date for his misdemeanor trial is in early February. If Wielhouwer is ready to submit the $43,500 bond, Choose Darrah mentioned one situation of his launch is that he must relinquish his firearms, bows, arrows, and different weapons to his protection legal professional.