A Sheridan County resident has been charged with two misdemeanors and nine felonies for wanton destruction of big game animals. Gregg Lambdin, a 62-year-old Sheridan resident turned himself into the Sheridan County Sheriff’s office on Tuesday.
The first two charges, from July 2016 to November 2017 and December 2017 to March 2018, are high misdemeanors, which each carry punishment of one year imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Each additional charge within a 10-year time period results in a felony offense. The other nine charges Lambdin faces are felony offenses, which each carry a punishment of two years imprisonment and $5,000 to $10,000 in fines.
Lambdin, in total, faces up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $110,000.
The charges stem from a two-month investigation by Wyoming Game and Fish Department law enforcement officers after information was provided to them about possible illegal activity on a property outside of Sheridan.
The Sheridan Press reports the Sheridan-based Wyoming Game and Fish Department wardens learned from Sheridan County residents on Nov. 20, 2018, that they had seen their neighbor, Lambdin, beating a deer on his property. The residents continued to observe Lambdin and saw him dragging several bloated carcasses of white-tailed deer around his property with a lawn mower.
Another hunter on land adjacent to Lambdin’s property noticed several deer carcasses in the thickets when hunting in 2017. After in-depth investigation of the man and his property, a WGFD investigator observed and video taped Lambdin killing a deer and leaving the carcass on his property.
A search warrant was served on Nov. 27, 2018 in cooperation with the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office and in all, 113 deer and one antelope were killed illegally, with one deer killed legally with a deer license on his property when a friend came to hunt with him. He said that he killed fawns, does and bucks like others kill prairie dogs, but that “unfortunately the law did not see it that way,” court documents said.
Lambdin was released Tuesday after Norris Alan Carlson paid the $10,000 cash-only bond. Lambdin is not allowed to have contact with neighbors or anyone listed in the case information. A preliminary hearing has not yet been set.
“It is unusual for felony charges to be filed in state wildlife crimes, but state statute does provide that option in certain cases,” said Sheridan Regional Wildlife Supervisor Craig Smith. “The Game and Fish Department, in consultation with the Sheridan County Attorney’s Office, believes they are appropriate in this case.”