Man pleads guilty to poaching black bear on reservation

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A man accused of shooting a 700-pound black bear on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota and removing its head pleaded guilty on Thursday.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Minnesota says forty-one-year-old Brett Stimac, of Brainerd, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to charges of wildlife trafficking and trespassing on Indian land for the September 2019 incident.

Prosecutors say Stimack killed the bear with a compound bow near the reservation’s garbage dump and then came back later to remove the bear’s head for a trophy.

Stimac’s attorney, Brian Toder, contends that though Stimac originally lied about shooting the bear, the animal was already dead when his client found it.

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