MI: 5 Mississippi Poachers Sentenced For Deer Hunting Ring That Killed 60 Animals

5 Mississippi Poachers Sentenced For Deer Hunting Ring That Killed 60 Animals

07/28/2025

Authorities have sentenced five Mississippi poachers for a long-running deer hunting and trafficking ring that killed more than 60 animals. They poached trophy whitetails while in Southern Illinois.

Authorities caught the five in 2023. But according to a press release, courts have finally sentenced the five for crimes committed between 2018 to 2022. They wrote, “Poachers would use spotlights to scout white-tailed deer in Massac, Jefferson, Union, Pope and Clark counties in southern Illinois. Once a deer was located, members of the group would get a rifle, spotlight the deer again, and then shoot to kill. They would later return to collect the carcass.”

The poachers processed the deer in their home state of Mississippi, but did the poaching in Illinois. Authorities believe the poaching ring has been in play a lot longer than the charges.

“Honestly, we really feel we only got maybe a quarter of what they’ve done,” says Conservation Police sergeant Heath Tepovich. “We found out that the main guy [Lee Johnson] had been doing it for about 20 years.”

Courts sentenced all five to almost $120,000 in total fines. Leader Lee Jay Johnson will have to pay $75,000 in restitution fees and $10,000 in fines. All five managed to avoid jail time but will have to serve five years of probation. Others involved include John M. Pritchard, Joshua A. Marshall, Gerald B. Moran, and Steven J. Pique.

“It’s hard to catch these people and when you do, you’ve got to set an example. And I think we did that,” says Tepovich. “I’m glad we’ve stopped them. I think we hopefully have corrected some behavior and maybe stopped others from doing the same. But you never know. It’s been my experience that [once convicted] people like that stop for a little bit. But then, they also cannot stop.”

“This was not an isolated incident of unlawful hunting,” USFWS Office of Law enforcement assistant director Douglas Ault said in a statement. “It was a calculated, multi-year operation that exploited Illinois’s prized wildlife resources for personal gain … Such organized violations undermine decades of conservation progress and diminish the integrity of fair-chase hunting traditions that responsible hunters value nationwide.”

“The biggest misconception of poaching is that people are doing it for food. And, you know, most of the time they’re just out for the trophy and the kill,” says Tepovich. “[Johnson] was paying people to go get the deer, and he would pay some [locals] to go scout deer as well, prior to him coming up [to Illinois]. It was a conspiracy. They set out to kill trophy deer. That was their big thing.”