Persistence Leads to Bust in Barbour County

Conservation Officers Andy Lyons and Robert Waybright with the confiscated gear after busting two Barbour County men for game law violations and marijuana charges

Deliberate work by a pair of Conservation Officers leads to a turkey hunting citation and more in Barbour County.

Conservation Officers arrested 49-year old Charles Hutzler and 35-year old Gregory Skidmore on the opening day of spring gobbler season.   

Officer Andy Lyons found a bait site near the community of Junior in Barbour County a week earlier.   He and Officer Robert Waybright visited the site on opening day and discovered Hutzler and Skidmore, both from Belington, in a blind hunting turkeys over bait.  They also noticed a strong odor of marijuana coming from the blind.

Hutzler granted officers consent to search his home after the pair admitted they had already killed two jakes even before the season opened.   At the home, officers confiscated the beards of the two Jake turkeys.   C-O’s also collected the skull, talons, and cape of an illegally possessed hawk, drug paraphanalia, and 18-potted marijuana plants in Hutzler’s laundry room.

Marijuana discoverd by Conservation Officers in the laundry room

The pair appeared before a Barbour County magistrate.  Hutzler is charged with cultivation and manufacture of a controlled substance.  He’s also charged with two counts of illegal killing of turkey, one count of hunting turkey over bait, and one count of illegal possession or parts thereof of a hawk.  He’s lodged in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond.

Skidmore entered a guilty plea before the magistrate to charges of hunting turkeys over bait and illegal possession of marijuana.   He was fined $100 for the hunting violation and $159 for the marijuana possession.  He was also given six-months probation and assessed just under $160 in court costs. 

All of their hunting equipment including two shotguns and video equipment has been impounded.