On a flight to Sacramento in November 2023, a California couple got to talking with fellow passengers about their hobbies. Specifically, how they had once illegally hunted a mountain lion, and how they were smuggling the skull of an endangered turtle in their carry-on bag.
Those passengers turned out to be wildlife officers.
Just over a year later, on Jan. 30, the couple, Byron Lee Fitzpatrick and Shannon Lee Price reached a plea agreement in Butte County, Calif., for violating fish and game laws, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement on Tuesday. Mr. Fitzpatrick was fined $1,865 and Ms. Price $1,015, and they both were put on one year of probation that bars them from hunting, according to the department.
On the flight, the couple were talking about hunting while seated behind the two officers, who were not in uniform, the wildlife department said.
The four struck up a conversation, and the officers disclosed their jobs to the couple, even encouraging the couple go Google the officers, said Andrew Halverson, a spokesman for the wildlife department’s law enforcement division. The couple joked that they could not find any information online about the officers, and continued talking, Mr. Halverson said.
Mr. Fitzpatrick, 24, and Ms. Price, 28, told the officers that a family member on the East Coast had given them a sea turtle skull that was packed in their carry-on luggage. They shared a story about hunting a mountain lion, which is a specially protected, nongame species in California. And they showed the officers a video of a trophy room that belonged to Mr. Fitzpatrick’s uncle, Harry Vern Fitzpatrick, that had stuffed mountain lions, wolves and a wolverine on display.
The officers were initially skeptical that the couple would have been able to pass through security with a sea turtle skull in their carry-on, Mr. Halverson said, and they asked to see it after they all got off the plane. The couple checked that there were no Transportation Security Administration officers nearby and then opened their bag to reveal the skull of a green sea turtle, a federally listed endangered species that is illegal to possess and transport, according to the agency.
With that, the officers “believed that it was probable” that the two had committed the other wildlife crimes they had shared during the flight, Mr. Halverson said.
The day after the flight, officers arrived to execute a search warrant at the couple’s home in Chico, Calif., and found Mr. Fitzpatrick and Ms. Price processing a deer they had hunted illegally that day, the agency said. Deer season was over, and the couple had no deer tags, which California requires in addition to an annual hunting license to hunt big game species.
Officers also found mountain lion claws, taxidermied animals including a ringtail cat and a barn owl, an illegally hunted spike buck and several illegally hunted deer with tagging violations, the agency said. Ringtail cats are a protected species in California, and mounted raptors like the barn owl are illegal to possess without state and federal permits.
Officers also searched the home of Mr. Fitzpatrick’s uncle, Harry Vern Fitzpatrick, 64, in Napa County, Calif., where they discovered two taxidermied mountain lions and one wolverine, both of which are fully protected species in California that are illegal to hunt or possess.
Lawyers listed in court records for Ms. Price and Byron Lee Fitzpatrick did not respond to requests for comment.
Byron Lee Fitzpatrick and Harry Vern Fitzpatrick did not respond to requests for comment.
In a plea agreement with the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, Mr. Fitzpatrick pleaded no contest to violating two California fish and game codes. Ms. Price also pleaded no contest to violating a California fish and game code. In addition to paying state fines and being put on probation, each had to pay a $1,000 fine for violating of federal wildlife regulations and laws.
In a plea agreement with the Napa County District Attorney’s Office, Harry Vern Fitzpatrick pleaded no contest to two counts of violating California’s fish and game codes, was ordered to pay $605 in fines and restitution, and was placed on six months’ probation.
As part of the plea deals, all the contraband animals were forfeited by the defendants, the agency said.
