A moose was illegally shot in Anchorage's Kincaid Park in 2020. The next year, three Dall sheep were killed in the McHugh Creek area of Chugach State Park and another moose was shot illegally in Bear Valley on the city's Hillside.

Several years later — and with the help of a wildlife photographer and another witness — three men were charged in July with dozens of criminal counts related to illegal kills, all in areas where hunting isn't allowed.

Two signed plea deals that include 5-year hunting bans and possible incarceration: 27-year-old Jon Wilson and 43-year-old Jerome Orton. This week, Alaska State Troopers said 33-year-old Jedidiah Lomer is still wanted on a warrant and has not been located.

The men bragged to others about their kills, according to charging documents filed in Anchorage District Court. The moose at Kincaid was killed near the archery range and then left without most of the meat salvaged as required by state law, troopers said. Same for the sheep at McHugh Creek.

The men lied to authorities about the hunts to make them appear legal, according to a summary of a troopers report and other evidence included with charges. And they took photos with the dead animals.

Back in 2021, Anchorage-based wildlife photographer Ryan Miller saw a picture Orton posted on a Facebook hunting group posing with a Dall sheep. The ram had a distinctive crack across the tip of its right horn. Orton claimed he shot the animal in the Talkeetna Mountains, the photographer said.

But Miller knew better. That wasn't the Talkeetnas. It was Chugach State Park. He'd photographed that sheep a few months earlier. It was one of numerous animals that roam the drainage, some emerging at rocky cliffs above the Seward Highway where drivers catch glimpses of the sure-footed sheep.

"I know exactly where that ram lives," he said he thought to himself at the time, "and he lives in McHugh Creek."

In October 2021, Miller said, he led a friend at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to the spot in the McHugh Creek drainage where the photo was really taken. They found two sheep carcasses partly buried by a bear.

One of them was that ram.

"I cracked the whole case open," Miller said this week.

Troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said while he couldn't provide specific details, the photographer "was very helpful with the investigation." Court documents indicate that Miller's report, as well as another person's testimony about the other animals, provided a foundation for the criminal case.

The illegal moose kills at Kincaid Park and Bear Valley, as well as a third sheep shot at McHugh Creek, came to light via Wilson's roommate, according to the report summary in the charging documents. Wilson bragged about a moose he'd killed in 2021, the summary said. The roommate also said Wilson had shot a moose in Kincaid in 2020 and a sheep he believed was illegal, it said.

Kincaid, threaded by popular trails, is not open to hunting. State officials this year rejected a proposal to allow a limited number of people with physical disabilities to hunt for antlerless moose within the park using archery, a crossbow or shotgun for two weeks in October.

Troopers said they interviewed Wilson in 2021 and he admitted to killing the Kincaid moose and the sheep but denied killing the Bear Valley moose, according to the summary.

One photo on his iPhone showed Wilson posing alone with bow and arrow over a moose in Bear Valley in September 2021, the summary said. Lomer was with him in other photos that day. They transported the animal in a vehicle registered to Orton and stored it at Orton's house, it said. Troopers found the Kincaid moose antlers and head at Wilson's house and the horns from the sheep in his garage, according to the summary.

The three men all know each other, according to Scott Dattan, the attorney representing Orton. Wilson's attorney was out of the office until later this month and couldn't be reached for comment.

Troopers this week said they are still looking for Lomer. A judge issued a bench warrant in August after Lomer failed to show up for an arraignment hearing on several evidence tampering charges. His current whereabouts are unknown, McDaniel said.

Wilson, initially charged with 14 wildlife crimes, entered guilty pleas to seven misdemeanor counts including wanton waste of big game and hunting in a restricted area. He was sentenced to serve 120 days in a halfway house, and report to Cordova Center in January. He was also ordered to pay a $3,000 fine and $3,100 in restitution and the terms of his probation bar him from hunting or accompanying other hunters for five years.

Orton, also charged with 14 crimes, entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor counts including unlawful possession or transportation of game and failing to salvage hindquarters.

He was ordered to pay a $4,000 fine and $2,200 in restitution and the terms of his probation bar him from hunting or accompanying other hunters for five years. His sentence includes serving 120 days in a halfway house. He is scheduled to report to the Cordova Center later this month.

Dattan said his client is a single father with two children and has applied for ankle monitoring to avoid incarceration. Orton had a problem with alcohol at the time of the illegal hunts but has been sober for several years, he said.

The men knew what they were doing was wrong, Dattan said.

"I think it's important to note he did voluntarily return the horns," he said, of his client's actions once the investigation began. "He cooperated dutifully."

Dattan credited the Office of Special Prosecutions assistant attorney general on the case, Ronald Dupuis, for being "open-minded" enough to agree to significant fines and restitution but less significant jail time.

Dupuis couldn't be reached for this story.

Miller, who is also a hunter, criticized the sentence as "so low" even with the roughly $6,000 in fines and restitution both men have been ordered to pay.

Other hunters looking to bag a ram might pay far more than $6,000 to get into the Brooks Range or another remote location instead of wandering into the wilderness next door, he said.

"Once again, it seems like it's always the case with these wildlife cases, it always ends up more of a slap on the wrist," Miller said. "Many Alaskans, especially in Anchorage, sort of take for granted what's in our backyard here. This is like nowhere else. It's pretty special."

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