In a case that a wildlife officer described as “a first for me,” an Idaho man shot a deer on an elementary school lawn after dark, left it for about two hours, and then came back and loaded the deer’s carcass into his pickup.
Lars Nelson of Peck, Idaho, was sentenced on Feb. 18 on charges stemming from killing a white-tailed deer buck on the front lawn of the Orofino Elementary School in Orofino, a small town in northwest Idaho.
It’s thought he used a crossbow to shoot and kill the deer.
“It’s a crazy one. Never in my life would I have thought that I would have investigated a poaching case at an elementary school,” Idaho Fish and Game conservation officer Luke Guasco told Cowboy State Daily.
Nelson was sentenced to a $1,000 fine ($500 suspended), $165 in court fees, a $400 civil penalty, and a $75 processing fee, according to the Idaho Fish and Game Department.
He must serve two 48-hour weekends in the Clearwater County, Idaho jail, with 174 days suspended, complete two years of unsupervised probation, and faces a five-year revocation of hunting privileges, according to Fish and Game.
The Orofino case mirrors recent urban deer poaching cases in Green River and Cody.
‘What The Heck Was This Guy Doing?’
Orofino is a tight-knit community of about 3,000, where many of the residents love to hunt, Guasco said.
The town has a local white-tailed deer herd, and residents were incensed by the illegal buck killing, late on Nov. 26, 2024, he said.
“It struck everyone as, ‘what the heck was this guy doing?’ The deer season had closed, he didn’t have a license, and he shot a deer inside city limits,” Guasco said.
There were no children present at the school when the deer was shot, he said.
Fish and Game reached out for help from the community to crack the case, sharing images of the suspect’s pickup, taken from a surveillance camera at the school.
Nelson was quickly pegged as the suspect, but it took time to put the case together, Guasco said.
“I first cited him in June of 2025,” he said.
However, investigators wanted to make sure the case was airtight before sending into the courts, Guasco added.
Officers served a search warrant at a residence in Asotin, Washington, where Nelson was staying. They seized his vehicle, clothing allegedly worn during the offense, and deer parts, Fish and Game reported.
Deer blood samples taken at the scene in Washington had to be matched with samples taken where the deer was killed.
“The DNA evidence we sent off to the lab took forever to process,” Guasco said.
Nelson initially pleaded not guilty, which prolonged court proceedings.
Nelson’s sentencing marked the end of a long process and “is a big win for the department,” Guasco said.
He wouldn’t speculate about Nelson’s motive for the poaching.
“There are multiple theories as to why, but we might never know the exact motive,” Guasco.
Similar Slayings In Rock Springs, Cody
Two men were charged in connection with separate cases of urban deer slayings in Wyoming.
In 2024 Timothy Crooks was sentenced to 15 days in jail for wanton waste of big game animals in Green River. He allegedly used a .22 caliber rifle with a makeshift suppressor made from plastic Coke bottles to shoot numerous deer, starting in 2018, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department reported.
Perhaps the most egregious incident was in September 2022, when children found a mule deer buck suffering from small-caliber gunshot wounds on the grounds of Harrison Elementary School in Green River.
In September 2024, Joshua Tamirat Wielhouwer was slapped with 18 wildlife-related charges based on allegations that he went on a killing spree with a bow in Cody, leaving nine dead mule deer scattered around town.
Two bucks, six does and a fawn were killed, and the carcasses were found with broadhead hunting arrow wounds, according to court documents.
The carcasses were discovered between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4, 2024, according to court documents.
Most of the carcasses were found around the Park County Complex, including a dead doe that was floating in a pond at the complex.
Carcasses were also found on 15th Street and Alger Avenue in Cody.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
