Three charged in poaching spree

WAUPACA – Three young men have been charged with numerous poaching-related charges after a gun-toting rampage where they took pot shots at raccoons and deer at night with semiautomatic handguns.
Ethan L. Lashua, 18, of Iola, has been charged with hunting deer during closed season - as a party to a crime, two counts of illegal shining of deer or bears - as a party to a crime and obstructing a conservation warden.
Ian W. Johnson, 18, of Amherst, has been charged with the exact same offenses.
And the third person is a male juvenile (MJ) has been charged with illegal hunting deer/carcass - as a party to a crime, hunting deer during closed season - as a party to a crime, and two counts of illegal shining of deer or bears - as a party to a crime.
According to three criminal complaints, Warden Jonathan Kaiser opened the investigation with three leads:
1. On Sept. 23, there was a report about hearing multiple handgun shots by a field on Elm Valley Road south of Scandinavia and the sound of a vehicle speeding off.
2. On Sept. 26, there was a report of a headless deer carcass found by a culvert on Peterson
Creek near Scandinavia. Kaiser identified it as a buck and determined it was shot.
3. On Sept. 27, there was a report of multiple handgun shots heard by County Trunk J and Nelson Road north of Iola, along with the sound of a vehicle speeding off.
In Portage County, there were complaints of unlawfully killed whitetail deer that might or might not be related to this investigation.

Toyota and Sig Sauer
The break in the case came on Sept. 30 around 6 p.m. when Kaiser got a tip from the poaching hotline (1-800-TIP-WDNR) with information that two people in a red car were seen shooting at an antlerless deer in a soybean field near County Trunk V and North Foley Road. The shots were fired from the driver’s side window and the car sped off after the shots.
That evening, he met up with Waupaca Sheriff Deputy Ben Bigelbach and Warden Kaitlin Kernosky and they searched the area for a dead or injured deer. They found nothing.
With a partial license plate number, Kaiser cross referenced his information against the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Office’s FLOCK traffic cameras and came up with the vehicle they were looking for: a 2007 Toyota Camry and from there he determined the vehicle’s primary operator and his address.
Kaiser and Kernosky paid a visit to the address that evening and the Camry was parked in the driveway. They met the father of MJ at the door. They confirmed a few facts about the car and learned MJ was not home. The father also mentioned MJ spent time with Johnson and Lashua earlier that day and he left in Lashua’s white truck earlier that evening.
The father gave permission for the wardens to search the Camry after hearing what his son might be involved in. Kaiser found a handgun case and a loaded Sig Sauer P365 9mm pistol.

Shots in the dark
As they departed, the wardens were passed by a white pickup that matched the description of Lashua’s truck. Kernosky advised Kaiser of this hunch and they turned around their patrol trucks and headed back to the MJ’s residence and drove up to the white truck.
They confirmed Lashua as the driver. Kaiser spoke with MJ and Kernosky spoke with Lashua and his passenger, Johnson.
MJ admitted to shooting an antleress deer earlier in the evening from the driver’s seat with the pistol found in the Camry. He said he did not think he hit it. Johnson was with him. He said he coyote hunts with Johnson and Lashua and he carried the pistol while coyote hunting.
He recalled shooting another antlerless deer in a ditch along Bestul Road using the headlights of Lashua’s truck to shine the deer. He thought he hit it and he looked for it but did not find it.
MJ recalled shooting another deer that Lashua struck with his truck last spring while they were heading out for turkey hunting. He shot the injured deer just off U.S. Highway 10 near Waupaca. It was the first deer he ever killed with a pistol.
In August, MJ shot another antlerless deer in the ditch on the first curve of Peterson Road south of County Trunk V in the evening. He used the headlight of Lashua’s truck.
MJ spoke of a buck he shot with his Mathews compound bow in the early season. It was killed during legal hunting hours and he put it in the back of Lashua’s truck. Johnson was also along. They cut the head off and dumped the carcass in Peterson Creek.
He also admitted that there were a few times when he shot deer at night on private property near Gilman and Hi-Corners roads. This was in mid-August to mid-September. MJ said he shot at three or four deer there. He did not think he hit any.
Kaiser asked MJ why? Why do this? MJ said he wasn’t thinking and that he often regretted his actions after he “pulls the trigger.”

Gunning raccoons
Kaiser circled back to Elm Valley Road. MJ said he was driving around with Johnson and they were shooting at raccoons with a pistol owned by MJ’s father. They shined the raccoons with the headlights of the Camry. MJ blasted them from the driver’s side window and Johnson gunned them from the passenger side. MJ said he did not think they hit any.
Kaiser brought up the gunshots heard on County Trunk J and Nelson Road. MJ said he shot at deer in a soybean field that night and he and Johnson shot at raccoons from Lashua’s truck. They did that in between toilet papering houses as it was Iola/Scandinavia’s homecoming week. They stayed out until 11:30 p.m. looking for deer that night.
Then there was the time Lashua and Johnson were early-season goose hunting with some other friends. MJ wasn’t there. A deer wandered into their spread of Canada goose decoys and somebody in the group shot the deer with a shotgun.
Other than the one injured, vehicle-struck deer, MJ figured he shot at 12-15 deer at night, from a vehicle, while shining, in Waupaca County. He only recovered two of them. He took one antlerless deer he shot at the intersection of County Trunks Q and V near Scandinavia and dumped it in a field along County Trunk B near Amherst. That occurred in mid-August.

Buck head returned
Kernosky came over with a loaded Browning T-Bolt .22 rifle. She found it in Lashua’s truck. MJ said they had it with them earlier that evening but did not use it.
Kernosky grilled Lashua on the logistics of the poaching activity: who, what, where, when and who was with whom. Lashua answered “no” or “I don’t know” to most of the questions but later admitted “they shot a couple of raccoons and stuff.”
Lashua did say he shot a small eight-point buck on Sept. 21 near Peterson Road and did not have a tag for the deer or a bowhunting license. He shot it with a Hoyt compound bow from a treestand. They cut the head off and dumped it in a ditch.
Speaking with Johnson, he said he had never been with MJ when a wild animal was killed and he had not fired a gun or bow this year, except for a 12-guage shotgun.
Both Johnson and Lashua affirmed they were not present when any deer were shot. Johnson said he only shot at raccoons using MJ’s pistol equipped with a laser and flashlight.
Kaiser asked about the headless deer. Johnson and Lashua said they didn’t know where the head was. Lashua then admitted the head was at his house. He said he didn’t know why he lied.
Kaiser and Kernosky eventually pieced together the facts by sorting through contradictory statements about who-was-with-who when the shooting episodes took place and also by further cross-examining the three men to see what stories matched up.
On Oct. 1, Kaiser met Lashua at the Cenex gas station in Scandinavia where he turned over the eight-point buck head shot by MJ. The head is being held as evidence at Hartman Creek State Park.
Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Bolz will be prosecuting the three cases and their initial appearances are scheduled for 1 p.m. on Dec. 4 in Branch 1.