March 12th, 2018 by WCBC Radio
The deer poacher convicted of killing a massive deer known as “mega-buck” on someone else’s property was sentenced Monday in Kent County Circuit Court.
Ronald Wayne Roe, 29, of Worton was convicted in February 2017 of multiple poaching charges in district court and appealed the decision. This week, he pleaded guilty to trespassing on private property and hunting without written permission in a negotiated agreement.
Roe killed the 17-point buck—a potential state record—in September 2016.
Joseph Bogdan, the landowner who had targeted the massive buck for several years only to have Roe shoot it, told the judge it was “the kind of deer that makes a good neighbor a bad neighbor.” Bogdan said at first he congratulated Roe but “it went sour” as the facts came out.
“The deer was baited, killed and gutted on my property,” Bogdan said.
A scorer for the Boone and Crockett Club, which measures deer antlers for possible records, said the rack was 212 7/8 total inches. That would have secured the club’s top spot for Maryland crossbow hunters and a top 10 overall state ranking.
By the time of this week’s appeals hearing, Roe had already paid $2,000 in restitution to the state and served a one-year suspension of his hunting privileges. This week, Roe received a jail sentence of 60 days, suspended, and was given 18 months of unsupervised probation.
The poacher forfeited the antlers, hide and meat to the state. However, the judge ruled that Roe would be allowed to pay for a replica of the deer antlers. He cannot display the replica antlers in public or on social media and cannot benefit in any way from them.
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