The Utah County Attorney’s office has indicted Kane County Commissioner Wade Heaton in Kane County’s Sixth District Court, under allegations of felony and misdemeanor Destruction of Protected Wildlife, as well as Conspiracy and Patterns of Unlawful Activity. The suit against Heaton also includes six employees of Heaton’s Color Country Outfitters (CCO), under allegations of illegal game baiting and profiting from the capture or destruction of protected wildlife.
The evidence, submitted to the Utah County Attorney by a Utah Department of Wildlife Resources Sergeant, includes messages between Heaton and the other defendants describing locations for feeding and keeping a record of where animal feed like corn has been distributed along the hunting property. Investigators found multiple sites along protected hunting grounds with corn piled up on the ground, along with water troughs and salt licks. Investigators also claim drone and satellite footage showing structures consistent with hunting blinds near some of these sites, and trail cam footage of the defendants carrying grain buckets and trimming limbs from the sites “seemingly to improve shooting lines from the blind to the bait.”
The evidence also included testimony from hunters that had contracted with the defendants, as well as trail cam footage corroborating their statements that they successfully killed deer directly over the sites of feed piles and grain troughs. According to these hunters’ statements, they were told by guides that these sites were “cattle station[s] ... approved by the division of wildlife.” The investigators claimed that a seized trail camera, whose memory card had been wiped and required recovery software to review, showed thousands of images of deer feeding at the site but never cows.
Both in the indictment report and in past communications with the press, Heaton has stated that CCO has both cattle feeding programs and deer herd supplemental feeding programs in place, reviewed by the DWR and approved. The indictment report states his claimed goal to stop feeding during the hunting season, and his claim that if feed is put out for livestock purposes it is legal to hunt game over it. The DWR officer providing evidence for the claim states multiple deer recorded on the trail cams feeding at the sites were given nicknames and presented as specific targets for guided hunts, again repeating that no livestock were ever seen at the water or feed sites. The officer also states there were hunting blinds in many of these areas, some of which were used in the shooting of these spotted and marked deer.
The DWR officer’s final statement in support of the indictment reads “Defendant Wade Heaton orchestrated and directed the baiting of deer and coordination of guided hunting trips involving the baited sites. CCO was paid by the hunters for these trips. The other defendants participated in guiding the hunts and baiting the sites (Counts 1, 9-11).”
Court proceedings for the case are scheduled to continue in early October, with the defendants being summoned to present their side of the case in court.
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