A Virginia man was sentenced to one day in jail, two years of probation, and nearly $10,000 in fines after he admitted to killing birds of prey including bald eagles and hawks.
The man entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia in March.
The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources said the defendant admitted to killing in excess of 20 juvenile and mature bald eagles and hawks, primarily red-shouldered and red-tailed.
The man identified as William Custis Smith, is a resident of Accomack County.
The Department launched the investigation during the 2023-24 waterfowl season when it received information about an individual trapping and poisoning hawks and eagles on the Eastern Shore.
Authorities found a dead juvenile bald eagle at the scene which had been poisoned with carbofuran, a lethal poison that was banned and pulled from U.S. markets in 2009.
Smith surrendered a can of carbofuran, the pesticide he used to commit some of the crimes.
In the case prosecuted by U.S. Attorney the defendant plead guilty to violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
The law provides criminal penalties for persons who “take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or any manner, any bald eagle … [or any golden eagle], alive or dead, or any part (including feathers), nest, or egg thereof,” the Department of Wildlife Resources said.
He also surrendered a can of carbofuran, the pesticide he used to commit some of the crimes, the department said.
Smith told the investigators that he was killing the hawks and eagles because they were killing all the ducks he was attracting to his impoundment.
Virginia Conservation Police Master Officer Brian Bratton, who investigated the killings, noted, according to the Department website that it was the time of year when hawks are migrating through. He said, “in very late winter, the food supply really gets short, so these birds are looking for prey.”
But the investigators found that Smith was aware that what he was doing was illegal.
