Tennessee game wardens busted a serial poacher who’d chosen an odd place to target trophy bucks: the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Lauderdale County. Officials say the 53-year-old poacher, Terry Sellers, recently pleaded guilty in court to two counts of illegal possession and one count of hunting without permission for poaching multiple deer on penitentiary property, where hunting is strictly prohibited.
The charges followed a months-long investigation by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which found that Sellers had illegally killed three big whitetail bucks on the prison grounds. The three trophy deer had a combined gross score of 491 5/8 inches. And it’s possible that Sellers would have kept at it if one of those bucks hadn’t been so recognizable.
“In early January 2025, TWRA Lieutenant Tim Ward received reports about a 15-point double drop-tine deer that had been killed in Lauderdale County,” TWRA officials explained in a news release. “Lieutenant Ward was familiar with this deer, as it had been spotted frequently around the West Tennessee State Penitentiary.”
Ward then interviewed witnesses and secured a “ping warrant” for Sellers’ smartphone. This allowed law enforcement to access the device’s location data to determine exactly where Sellers was at specific dates and times. Along with other corroborating evidence, this data showed that Sellers, who lives in Lauderdale County, had killed the three bucks on WTSP property.
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The TWRA did not specify when those deer were taken, but a picture of a game warden with the three trophy heads shows that two of them had already been turned into shoulder mounts. The giant double drop-tine was the only rack that hadn’t yet been mounted. TWRA said in its announcement that Sellers will have to pay $850 to a taxidermist — presumably to cover the cost of that shoulder mount, since the agency plans to use the trophy heads for educational displays.
In addition to the taxidermy fees, Sellers was ordered by a judge to pay $17,500 in restitution to the state. He will also lose his hunting privileges for six years.
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