NEWS

Dad, son sentenced for illegal deer shipments

Associated Press

COLUMBUS – A father and son have been sentenced for illegally shipping white-tailed deer from Ohio to a hunting preserve in Florida.

Federal prosecutors in Columbus say 49-year-old Donald Wainwright Sr. of Live Oak, Florida, was sentenced last week to 21 months in prison and fined $125,000. He had pleaded guilty to charges including wildlife trafficking and conspiracy.

His son, Donald Wainwright Jr., 29, was sentenced to four months of house arrest and three years of probation on related convictions.

Court documents said Wainwright Sr. was the owner of hunting preserves in western Ohio and in north Florida. Prosecutors say he illegally shipped deer to Florida from Ohio, and attempted to ship deer to Georgia from Ohio.

The herds involved were not certified to be free from disease as the law requires.