Charges filed in Jasper deer deaths | Crime

Jasper Police have charged a local resident with shooting three deer with a bow and arrow inside the city limits and leaving them to die.

Passersby using the Riverwalk called police Wednesday after finding two deer that had been shot by arrows.  With the assistance from conservation officers, authorities determined they were shot in the area of 13th and Franklin Streets and ran to the wooded area of the Riverwalk where they died.

It's believed one deer had been shot three to four days earlier and the second sometime between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. 

On Thursday, officers acting on a tip located a third deer near where the other two were found and believed it, too, had been hit with an arrow some time ago.

According to Jasper Police, Lloyd J. Carpenter, 27, admitted shooting Whitetail deer behind his home in the 700 block of East 12th Street.  Two bows were seized from Carpenter. He was charged with two counts of illegal taking of a deer and issued city ordinance violations for shooting a bow without a proper backstop and using a broadhead within city limits.

Illegal taking of a Whitetail deer is a class C misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a possible $500 fine.  In addition, the State of Indiana can impose a fine for the replacement cost of the first deer and $1,000 for any subsequent offense.