St. Cloud Hunter Banned From US Big Game Hunting For 5 Years

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A St. Cloud man who violated a federal hunting law has been banned from hunting big game anywhere in the U.S. for five years.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says 41-year-old William Robert Welsh of St. Cloud was sentenced in federal court Tuesday.

Last October, Welsh pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of transporting wildlife that was illegally taken.

Under a plea agreement, Welsh admitted that in October of 2011, he shot and killed a deer in the closed area of Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. The next day, Welsh sawed off the deer's antlers and took them to his home, leaving the rest of the carcass in the field.

As part of the sentence, Welsh also is banned from entering the refuge for five years and forfeits his seized firearm.