JACKSON, Wyo. — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) has wrapped up a multi-year investigation into an Idaho man who falsely claimed to be a Wyoming resident in order to get hunting tags. He then shot and killed deer, elk and pronghorn around western Wyoming, including in Teton County.
According to a WGFD press release on Monday, Nov. 3, Rodney Gilstrap, of Idaho Falls, was sentenced Sept. 24 on multiple wildlife-related charges, after having filed an appeal last year. In 2018, Gilstrap was claiming to be a Wyoming resident in order to obtain resident hunting licenses. After receiving anonymous tips about Gilstrap’s residency, Afton Game Warden James Hobbs began investigating. The statement says that Gilstrap committed multiple wildlife related crimes from 2018 to 2021 in Lincoln, Sublette and Teton counties.
WGFD wardens partnered with Idaho Fish and Game over the course of the investigation, and search warrants were served and executed in March 2022 at Gilstrap’s Idaho Falls residence. During the searches, officers recovered four mule deer heads with antlers, two bull elk heads with antlers and one buck pronghorn head with horns. Per WGFD, the animals were killed in Wyoming using illegally obtained resident licenses or killed with no license. Officers later identified the locations where each animal was killed.
“Gilstrap killed four large buck mule deer over a four-year period, ranging in antler size from 180-220 inches, and three large bull elk at the expense of Wyoming’s law abiding hunters,” the statement reads. “The buck mule deer Gilstrap illegally killed would have been a once-in-a-lifetime harvest for most of Wyoming’s legal hunters.”
In the summer of 2023, Gilstrap was charged with 22 wildlife crimes that occurred across three counties. In Teton County, he was charged with one count of intentionally killing a bull elk without the proper license in Oct. 2020, one count of failing to properly tag a bull elk, and one count of intentionally killing a bull elk without a license in Sept. 2021.
After Gistrap accepted a plea deal in Lincoln County in Aug. 2024, 16 of the charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to 540 days in jail with 519 days being suspended and was sentenced to serve 21 days in jail. He will then have three years of unsupervised probation, during which his hunting privileges are revoked, and he must pay $10,000 in restitution to WGFD and $17,905 in fines. Gilstrap also received an 18-year suspension of hunting and fishing privileges in Wyoming and all other state members of the Wildlife Violator Compact. He forfeited all of the heads and antlers seized from his possession, and cannot hunt antlers in Wyoming during the probationary period.
After the guilty pleas, Gilstrap’s lawyers appealed the court’s decision. His motion for a sentence reduction/modification was denied, and he must report to Lincoln County Detention Center on Nov. 7 to serve his sentence with a modified, work-release schedule.
“Solving this case would not have been possible without the help of concerned citizens reporting Gilstrap’s illegal activity,” reads the statement. “The collaborative work between WGFD and the Lincoln, Teton, and Sublette county attorney’s offices was essential to resolving these crimes.”
