A still image taken from a security video camera showed three men inside the fence at Devils Hole/NPS
More than two years after three men broke into Devils Hole at Death Valley National Park and vandalized the site and impacted the health of an extremely rare population of pupfish, the last of the three has been sentenced to prison.
National Park Service officials say an Indian Springs, Nevada, felon who fired a shotgun at the Devils Hole gate padlock, destroyed a surveillance camera and equipment, and harmed endangered pupfish back in April 2016 will be serving time behind bars. Trenton Sargent, 28, pleaded guilty in July to one count of violation of the Endangered Species Act, one count of destruction of United States property, and one count of felon in possession of a firearm, a park release said. As a felon, he was prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition.
On October 25, U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon sentenced Sargent to 12 months and a day in prison and three years of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson and Death Valley Superintendent Mike Reynolds.
The inch-long, blue Devils Hole pupfish is a Nevada state and federally listed endangered species. The Endangered Species Act was enacted to provide a program for the conservation of endangered and threatened species. Devils Hole is the only location in the world where this species of pupfish exists in the wild. Just weeks before the April 30, 2016, vandalism, a scientific survey of Devils Hole observed just 115 pupfish.
For decades, scientists counted about 200 Devils Hole pupfish in the spring and about 450 in the fall. Pupfish numbers have been precariously low in recent years, dropping to 38 pupfish in 2006-2007 and 35 pupfish in 2013. Earlier this month, however, park staff announced that the fall count of pupfish turned up 187, the most observed in 15 years.
Devils Hole pupfish are among the most endangered fishes in the world/NPS
The only natural habitat of Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) is the upper 80 feet of a deep, water-filled cavern and sun-lit shallow pool at the cavern’s entrance. Devils Hole is located in a detached unit of Death Valley National Park adjacent to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nye County, Nevada.
According to the park release, Sargent admitted that he and co-defendants Edgar Reyes and Steven Schwinkendorf rammed their ATV into the fence surrounding Devils Hole, severely damaging the gate. Then, Sargent fired a Mossbert 500 shotgun at the padlock on the gate, the release added.
After their attempts to open the gate were unsuccessful, the men scaled the fence. Once in the enclosed area, they destroyed a sensor center for cameras and equipment for the area, and destroyed a video surveillance camera belonging to the National Park Service. Then, Sargent stepped into the water onto the Devils Hole shallow shelf. In doing so, he smashed pupfish eggs and larvae pupfish during the peak spawning season for pupfish, who lay their eggs on the shallow shelf.
Reyes, 37, of North Las Vegas, and Schwinkendorf, 31, of Pahrump, previously pleaded guilty to destruction of government property and violation of the Endangered Species Act, the park release said. They were each sentenced to one year probation.
Comments
They all got off too easily.
Boy, this punishment is laughable! I don't understand why there are not much harsher penalties for vandalism in Nat'l Parks, destroying birthing grounds at Devil's Hole among other horrifying things that have been done to our public lands, wildlife and endangered species.
Sadly there are many judges and magistrates who continue think that defacing and damaging public space, whether a park or BLM land is a minor sort of transgression and are reluctant to impose ssubstantive fines or order jail time. The same is true for game laws is nsome places, the warden may arrest you but the magistrate will let you off with a warning. I live in a place where for many years all the game law violations from a very large area went to just one judge. Even repeat violators never drew jail time. Poaching was and is hightly profitiable along the coast, so profitable that confiscation of diving gear and fines are not sufficient. Probation is a joke for these trafficers and their steady customers.
The yahoos in the pupfish case were already inclined to criminal stupidity and I doubt probation is going to reform two of them. The last one is already a felon so you know that he otherwise would have been let off with a stiff finger wagging.
These are really light sentences. Where there no fines involved?
Sadly there are many judges and magistrates who continue think that defacing and damaging public space, whether a park or BLM land is a minor sort of transgression and are reluctant to impose ssubstantive fines or order jail time. The same is true for game laws is nsome places, the warden may arrest you but the magistrate will let you off with a warning. I live in a place where for many years all the game law violations from a very large area went to just one judge. Even repeat violators never drew jail time. Poaching was and is hightly profitiable along the coast, so profitable that confiscation of diving gear and fines are not sufficient. Probation is a joke for these trafficers and their steady customers.
Unbelievable. 1yr probation = "no punishment"
That might not be the way you do things in England, but here in The United States of America the punishment is served concurrently, and the biggest ticket item the offender plead to was the possesion of firearm by a "prohibited person"
This was a plea deal so he got the mandatory minimum for the firearms charge, had this gone to a jury trial some jurors might not of cared about the fish, some others might not of cared about the firearm charge depending on what kind of a nonviolent, victimless felon he was.
Why did they do this??? I can't find any reasons? does anyone know?