A young Michigan man currently facing charges in Wyoming for an urban deer-poaching spree has also been accused of shooting a cow in 2023, according to the Powell Tribune. Prosecutors tacked on the additional felony charge last week and said the cow appeared to have been shot with an arrow (or multiple arrows) and left to waste, just like the mule deer that were found rotting in Cody over the summer.
The accused, 20-year-old Michigan resident Josh Wielhouwer, is now looking at the one felony charge for property destruction in addition to the 18 misdemeanor counts for the nine mule deer he allegedly poached and left to rot in 2024. Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah, who is overseeing the case, increased Wielhouwer’s bail Friday to $43,500 in light of the additional felony charge, the Tribune reports. Wielhouwer’s bail had originally been set at $36,000, but he was unable to pay it and has been held at the Park County Detention Center since his arrest in September.
“I do take into account that the defendant had previously turned himself in, but now we have a felony charge,” Darrah said Friday, according to the Tribune. “It’s a whole different ball game.”
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The initial criminal case against Weilhouwer revolves around allegations that he went on a mule deer killing spree in downtown Cody over the summer. Between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4, two bucks, six does, and one fawn were found killed and left to rot inside city limits. Most of the mule deer carcasses were scattered around the Park County Complex, where the library and other county buildings are located, and they all had broadhead wounds, according to an affidavit from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Local game wardens believe they caught Wielhouwer in the act of poaching deer with a compound bow at the Park County Complex on Sept. 4, but he fled the scene, according to charging documents obtained by the newspaper. (The Park County clerk could not immediately provide the public court records associated with Wielhouwer’s ongoing criminal cases when contacted by Outdoor Life Tuesday.) Park County prosecuting attorney Larry Echile explained in the charging documents that Wielhouwer went on Facebook shortly thereafter to post, “Catch me if you can.”
Wielhouwer would turn himself in just five days later, however, after investigators tied him to the vehicle that was used in the alleged crimes. Game wardens explained in an affidavit that they located a silver Ford Fusion at the Park County Complex on Sept. 4, and they spotted an arrow inside the vehicle that matched one found at the complex days earlier. They called the Ford’s registered owner, who said that Weilhouwer had been driving his vehicle while he was out of town. And on Sept. 7, they obtained a warrant for Weilhouwer’s arrest.
Photo courtesy Park County Sheriff’s Office
Wielhouwer turned himself in on Nov. 9 — his attorney said he flew back to Cody from Michigan to do so. He was subsequently charged with 18 misdemeanors: nine counts of taking a game animal without a hunting license and nine counts of wanton destruction of a big game animal. The state-recommended bail of $36,000 was equal to the restitution amount Wielhouwer would be ordered to pay if convicted (at $4,000 per deer). Wielhouwer reportedly pleaded not guilty to those charges in September.
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But state investigators kept looking into the crimes, which led them to the dead cow that was found on a ranch north of Cody in Sept. 2023. The game warden who responded to that incident found “holes in the carcass that appeared to be from an arrowhead,” according to an affidavit submitted by the Park County Sheriff’s Office and acquired by the Tribune. The affidavit also included a ranch employee’s description of the vehicles he’d seen on the road that day, and one of the vehicles was a silver Honda with Michigan plates. Authorities say another hunter reported seeing the same vehicle, and that Wielhouwer is the registered owner of a silver Honda with Michigan plates. They also say they found a broadhead in Wielhouwer’s vehicle that matched a bloody broadhead recovered from the ranch where the cow was killed in 2023.
Wielhouwer remains at the Park County Detention Center, and the Tribune reports that a preliminary trial for the felony charge has been set for Nov. 19. The next court date for his misdemeanor trial is in early February. If Wielhouwer is able to post the $43,500 bond, Judge Darrah said one condition of his release is that he will have to relinquish his firearms, bows, arrows, and other weapons to his defense attorney.
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