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The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks announced it has closed a poaching case involving the illegal harvest of a trophy deer in Kansas. The investigation, led by Kansas Game Wardens, ended with a guilty plea from a Tennessee man who admitted to unlawfully killing the deer.

According to KDWP, while investigating an unrelated poaching case in early 2024, game wardens found evidence showing the deer had been killed in Kansas. A photo on another suspect’s phone included GPS coordinates and a timestamp confirming the deer was taken in Kansas shortly before the man filed an electronic harvest report in Missouri and purchased a Missouri hunting permit. Further investigation revealed the deer was killed in Miami County, Kansas, before being tagged in Missouri.

Wardens later obtained the suspect’s phone records, confirming his presence in Kansas at the time of the kill. In late summer 2024, Kansas officers traveled to the Nashville area, where they seized the deer and obtained a confession from the man.

He pled guilty in Miami County District Court, was fined $5,000, and ordered to pay $3,960.50 in restitution and $108 in court costs.

KDWP’s Special Investigations Unit led the case with help from the Missouri Department of Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.