A Colorado Springs man has received a lifetime hunting ban after illegally killing animals across three Colorado counties.
28-year-old Iniki Vike Kapu has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor poaching charges in Fremont, Teller, and Chaffee Counties, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife has made the decision to permanently suspend his hunting privileges.
According to CPW, Kapu was accused of killing 12 deer, 2 turkeys, and a bighorn sheep ram across the region.
He pleaded guilty to illegal possession of wildlife in May 2019 in Chaffee County and then pleaded guilty again in December 2019 in Teller County. Then in February of 2020, he pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a bighorn sheep in Fremont County.
CPW said he was fined $4,600 and sentenced to six months in jail and three years supervised probation.
CPW hearing examiner Steven Cooley issued the decision to permanently suspend Kapu’s hunting privileges saying, “Let this be a warning to anyone out there who is contemplating poaching wildlife in Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife aggressively pursues anyone who illegally takes wildlife. When you poach, you are stealing from all residents of Colorado.”
