Ripon man goes to jail in deer 'thrill killing' case
GREEN LAKE — A 19-year-old Ripon man authorities say participated in the "thrill killing" of 15 deer during the closing weekend of the 2014 gun deer hunting season will serve six months in jail and lose his hunting privileges for 12 years.
Grant J. Boese pleaded no contest to six counts of failing to obtain a deer hunting license Monday, Aug. 3, in Green Lake County Circuit Court, where Judge Mark Slate also sentenced Boese to three years of probation and ordered him to pay $6,000 in fines and other court costs, plus $800 in restitution.
The remaining 122 counts were dismissed and read into the record as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
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Charges included 14 counts each of failing to obtain a deer hunting license and loading or discharging a firearm in or from a vehicle; 18 counts of illegally shining deer; 16 counts of hunting after revocation; 13 counts of discharging a firearm from or across a highway; and four counts of possessing or transporting a firearm in a vehicle.
Green Lake County District Attorney Andrew Christenson was not immediately available Monday for comment.
Boese was sentenced Jan. 22 to six months in jail, with work release and credit for 68 days already served, after violating his probation for a 2014 failing to obtain a deer hunting license conviction in Winnebago County.
According to court documents, Boese, along with Steven Steger, 18, Princeton, shot two nine-point bucks during the overnight hours of Nov. 22 in the town of St. Marie. The defendants then staged a hunting scene at Steger's residence to make the deer look like a legitimate kill, with Steger and his brother each tagging one of the deer.
On Nov. 28, Boese shot 11 deer from the passenger seat of a vehicle in the towns of St. Marie, Princeton and Brooklyn, according to the complaint. The next night, Boese shot and picked up one buck in Marquette County, brought it back to Green Lake County and hid it in a field, where a sheriff's deputy recognized the pickup truck as matching the description of one involved in the poaching of at least seven whitetail deer in the area.
Boese and Steger, along with Cody T. Johnston, 19, Green Lake, then led authorities on a chase that exceeded 90 miles an hour before crashing through a barbed-wire fence and getting stuck in a marshy field in the town of Princeton, according to the complaint. Boese also made comments about a "shoot and drop", about stacking up deer and about keeping empty casings from each kill in the passenger-side door of his vehicle.
Steger faces 74 charges in connection to the incident. His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 14 in Green Lake County Circuit Court.
Reach Nathaniel Shuda at 920-426-6632 or nshuda@thenorthwestern.com; on Twitter @onwnshuda.