FAIRFIELD, Vt. – Vermont state game wardens arrested Nicholas Robert, 29, of Fairfield, Vermont on December 6 and charged him with four counts of taking deer during closed season and hunting deer with bait.

Game Warden Dustin Snyder received a tip of several, potentially illegal, deer hanging in a tree in the woods in Fairfield. Warden Snyder investigated and located three illegally taken antlerless deer hanging from a tree. He also discovered the deer had been killed with a small caliber rifle, and he found where four deer had been killed near a bait pile and elevated shooting shack.

The owner of the shack, Nicholas Robert, was interviewed and confessed to killing the four antlerless deer with the use of bait. The fourth deer, killed with a muzzleloading rifle, was located in a barn on the property. Robert did not have an antlerless deer permit for the 2016 muzzleloader deer season.


Robert must appear in Franklin Superior Court, Criminal Division, in late January to answer the charges of four counts of taking deer in closed season and hunting deer over bait. If convicted, he will be fined up to $1,000 and he could be imprisoned for 60 days for each charge. He also could be ordered pay up to $2,000 in restitution for each deer taken illegally, forfeit his rifles and lose his privilege to hunt, fish and trap in Vermont for three years.

During the 2016 Vermont muzzleloader deer season a hunter may take one legal buck with at least one antler having two or more points. With a muzzleloader antlerless permit issued by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, a person may take an antlerless deer within the authorized wildlife management unit.



Media Contact: Col. Jason Batchelder 802-828-1529