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July 20, 2010

Longtime poacher gets two years in jail

Georgia, Tennesseee team up on sentence

Mark Millican markmillican@daltoncitizen.com

A veteran Tennessee wildlife officer said longtime poacher Kurt Wesley Ellis — sentenced to two years in jail for violating probation by trout fishing in Murray County — is “not a bad guy.”

“He’s never given me a bit of trouble what times I’ve dealt with him,” said Philip Earheart of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “He’s just going to hunt and fish when he wants to hunt and fish, no matter what anybody tells him. But not for awhile this time.”

Ellis, 31, of 7249 Highway 60 in Bradley County, Tenn., pleaded guilty in General Sessions Court there in January 2009 to 12 poaching charges. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 100 hours of community service; to pay fines, court costs and restitution; and to serve a two-year probation term where he was “only allowed to go where necessary,” said Earheart.

“The way I understood it from the (district attorney) was that he could go to church, work (or) go to the grocery store,” he said. “But he wasn’t supposed to be out trout fishing, turkey hunting or anything like that.”

In April, law enforcement officers with Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) received a tip through the Turn In Poachers (TIP) hotline (800-241-4113) that Ellis was doing just that on Holly Creek, four miles east of Eton in Murray County. When Cpl. Nathaniel Jones approached Ellis he informed him that he was aware of his suspensions in Tennessee and was going to have to arrest him, according to an incident report. Ellis replied he was not aware he was not allowed to fish in Georgia.

Ellis was charged with fishing while his hunting and fishing rights were suspended, possession of illegally taken wildlife (three trout) and making false statements and false writing to obtain a fishing license.

When Jones learned that two juveniles and two adult friends were fishing with Ellis he took his driver’s license but allowed Ellis to drive them home if he agreed to turn himself in that night. Ellis informed Earheart of the agreement and Earheart contacted the district attorneys in Bradley and Hamilton counties in Tennessee, the report said. Ellis turned himself in to the Murray County Jail that night without incident.

Earheart placed a hold on Ellis until he could be transferred to the Bradley County Jail, and on July 8 Ellis pleaded guilty to violating his probation. Earheart said he was sentenced to serve two 364-day terms, with credit given for time served in both jails. Ellis is serving his time in the Bradley County Jail.

Local Assistant District Attorney Scott Minter said his office has agreed to recommend a sentence of two years in prison on the charges levied by the Georgia DNR for illegally fishing in Holly Creek to run concurrently with the Tennessee sentence.

Sgt. John Vanlandingham of the DNR law enforcement office in Calhoun said his officers recognized Ellis immediately and were looking for him after learning he was poaching in north Georgia.

“He had gotten his hunting and fishing privileges suspended up there in Tennessee, and after not being able to get away with it for awhile, he kinda moved down to Georgia since he was so close,” he said. “He had also been doing some hunting down here. What he did is he bought a (fishing) license in Georgia under a false name. If he had purchased the license with his right name, that would’ve gotten flagged on our system. It would’ve come up.”

The incident report noted Ellis fraudulently purchased the fishing license in Chatsworth on April 7.

Earheart was asked if Ellis was a “serial” poacher.

“That’s right,” he replied. “He started getting caught a long, long time ago. Every couple of years he gets caught doing something else. He got to the point where he could never get his license back in order to do it right. He just wouldn’t quit going. If he had just quit hunting and quit violating the laws, he wouldn’t be in this mess right now.”

Earheart credited Georgia authorities for catching Ellis once again.

“We wouldn’t have had him if it weren’t for your (DNR law enforcement) guys — give them all the credit,” he said.

In east Tennessee the Turn In Poachers hotline number is 800-831-1174.

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