ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9607010055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: JENNIFER MILLER STAFF WRITER
CHARLIE NICHOLS has been banned from hunting in Virginia for at least 11 years and faces more than $2,000 worth of fines.
Charlie Nichols wanted to go down in sports history as the best deer hunter ever.
He was obsessed with being No. 1.
"It was like a drug addiction," he told state game wardens. "I had to be the best that there ever was.
"I didn't care about what I did."
Nichols pleaded guilty in Botetourt County Circuit Court on Friday to two felony charges of forgery. He faces charges in at least seven other localities for entering contests with deer that game wardens claim he did not kill himself and forging game check cards so that the deer would appear to be legal kills.
In a 90-minute videotaped interview on Jan. 29 with state game wardens, Nichols confessed that he bought an 11-point rack from Antlers Unlimited in Montana for $600 and rigged the antlers onto another deer carcass. He also admitted that he replaced the deer's hide with another pelt from out of state and smeared groundhog blood at the base of the antlers to make it look like a fresh kill.
He took first prize at a Trebark Outfitter's "Big Buck" contest Oct. 15, 1994, for the 11-pointer, winning a dozen arrows, camouflaged overalls, a pair of gloves and a baseball hat. The goods were worth less than $200.
Nichols also admitted he bought an 8-point deer for $500 at a Michigan deer farm and entered it in the Trebark Outfitter's contest last Oct. 16. The morning before the contest, he said he sprayed the buck with hot water to "limber it up" so it would appear to be a fresh kill. Nichols placed third in the contest, receiving no prize money.
"At the time, he was losing money," state game warden Tom Wine testified Friday in Botetourt County Circuit Court. But "he was gaining national status as a professional bowhunter."
"He wanted to be the Michael Jordan of bowhunting," Wine said.
Nichols was charged in Botetourt County because that's where he checked the two deer that he entered in the Trebark Outfitter contests. He had claimed he killed the deer in Botetourt County.
On June14, he pleaded guilty in Roanoke County to one count of obtaining money by false pretenses. He also pleaded guilty in Rockingham County to two similar misdemeanor charges of obtaining property - two prize plaques - by false pretense.
Nichols has been banned from hunting in Virginia for at least 11 years and faces more than $2,000 worth of fines and 100 hours of community service. He also could spend up to 10 years in jail.
Nichols will be sentenced in Botetourt County on Aug. 15.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS STAFF Charles Nichols fakedby CNBhis buck entries in a contest. color
2. In Botetourt County Circuit Court on Friday, Crystal Weidman of
the Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries Department holds up the
falsified deer that Charles Nichols rigged. color