ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
CHARLIE NICHOLS, driven by an addictive need for recognition, pleaded guilty to obtaining money by false pretenses.
Charlie Nichols spent the morning of Oct. 16 soaking a stiffening deer carcass in hot water.
The idea was to "limber it up," to make it look like it had just been shot, state game warden Crystal Weidman testified Thursday in Roanoke County Circuit Court.
Three days earlier, Nichols had driven to a legal deer farm in Michigan with $1,500 in his pocket to buy a big deer, but he settled for an eight-point buck for $500, Weidman said. He shot it, loaded it in his truck and drove back to his Roanoke County home.
The next morning, with the dead deer steaming like a fresh kill, he took it to Smith's Store in Botetourt County and checked it, claiming he had just bagged it bowhunting, Weidman said.
He later entered the deer's antlers in a Trebark Outfitters "Big Buck" contest. Nichols was driven by an addictive need for recognition, Weidman said, an addiction Nichols himself has admitted.
This time, the eight-point rack - a set of antlers - took third place and no prize money. But other racks Nichols entered in the contest over two years did win prizes.
Nichols spent thousands of dollars on deer racks, pelts and taxidermy to win a few hundred dollars worth of hats, gloves and hunting gear.
Taking those prizes is what landed Nichols in court Thursday.
He pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining money by false pretenses as part of an agreement in which other charges - including forgery, uttering and a second count of obtaining money by false pretenses - were dropped.
But Nichols, who has been praised in local newspapers and national magazines for his hunting prowess, is just getting started on a series of court dates related to his bogus deer.
In all, Nichols faces charges in at least seven localities: for entering contests with deer that game wardens say he claimed he shot but didn't; and for allegedly altering game check tickets to make the deer appear to be legal kills.
The investigation of Nichols started when Weidman ran across an altered game check ticket at Trebark Outfitters in Roanoke County, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mark Claytor said.
It ended with several detailed confessions by Nichols.
Nichols' trouble in Roanoke County began with the purchase of an 11-point rack from Antlers Unlimited for $600, according to Weidman's testimony. To make it look like a legally killed deer, Nichols first tried altering a game check ticket for a two-point buck he had killed. While the clerk at Gala Market in northern Botetourt County turned her back for a minute, he changed the two to an 11.
Unsatisfied with that, Weidman said, Nichols later rigged the 11-point antlers onto another deer carcass and checked it as a legal kill.
Mounted with a pelt also bought out of state, Nichols won first place in the bowhunting category in a Trebark contest October 15, 1994 .
His prize: a dozen arrows, camouflaged coveralls, a pair of gloves and a baseball hat - altogether worth less than $200.
"Somebody put that together like that?'' asked Judge Roy Willett when the mounted head was presented as evidence. "That's remarkable."
Weidman testified that Nichols was cooperative throughout the investigation and eventually gave a 90-minute videotaped confession.
At the end of the tape, Weidman said, Nichols tells how he once missed a contest. He said he couldn't let that happen again, but it got too hard to keep up with the contests hunting legally.
Nichols could receive up to 10 years in prison on the charge he pleaded guilty to. As part of his plea agreement, he also agreed to perform 100 hours of community service and pay restitution to Trebark - including what it costs to make sure the "real winners" get their due.
Perhaps the deepest cut of all is Nichols' agreement to give up his hunting privileges in Virginia for five years.
Nichols has already pleaded guilty to similar charges in Williamsburg, for which he was ordered to pay a fine.
Game wardens who attended Thursday's trial said afterward that other hunters hardly care if Nichols serves a day in jail, as long as he stays out of the woods. They don't want a man who has sullied the name of hunting ever to have the chance to do it again.
Weidman and others say Nichols was a talented hunter once.
But he violated the unwritten code that keeps hunters honest, since most of the time their greatest triumphs come without witnesses.
It's a dark day in the world of hunting, said Jim Crumley, owner of Trebark outfitters and a national figure in hunting circles himself.
"Very dark."
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB