April 17, 2013
By Wes Bunch, TimesNews.net
GATE CITY – A Kingsport man who previously served jail time for unlawfully killing wildlife is facing a variety of new poaching-related charges, with police saying this time he was observed shooting turkeys from his car on a road in Scott County, Va.
Ernest Eugene McMurray, 41, of Kingsport, was charged by the Scott County Sheriff’s Office with two counts of killing a turkey during closed season and one count each of shooting wildlife from a vehicle, shooting across a road, trespassing to hunt and unlawfully hunting on Sunday.
McMurray was arrested and charged March 28. According to police reports, he was driving along Eaton Hill Road when he spotted wild turkeys in an adjacent field and stopped his car in the road to shoot them.
Puckett said McMurray was previously charged with poaching four deer and four turkeys. As a result of those convictions, he was fined $500 for each animal killed and given a 30 day jail sentence with 29 days suspended.