An Arizona man has been sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for operating an illegal outfitting and guiding service in Southern Colorado.
Timothy Rawlings was also given three years’ supervised release and ordered to pay $45,800 in restitution as part of a plea agreement. A Baca County, Colorado, man, Howard Wayne Rodarmel, was also given three years probation and ordered to pay $9,1640 in restitution, and a $2,000 fine for his participation in the scheme.
“For several years, Rawlings and his associates systematically violated Colorado’s hunting and guiding regulations, orchestrating illegal hunts, and facilitating the unlawful take, transport, and sale of big game across state lines for monetary financial gain,” said Douglas Ault, Assistant Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement, in a statement.
Rawling owned and operated Old West Guides and Outfitters in Laveen, Arizona. The company took clients on hunts for various big game animals, including deer, elk, mountain lions, and bears in Colorado despite not being licensed to operate in the state.
According to court documents, Rawlings, 56, paid Rodarmel to provide outfitting and guiding services in Baca County between October 2018 through December 2021. Rodarmel also procured landowner vouchers for out-of-state hunters to use, violating state law.
In addition to violating the federal Lacey Act, state officials say Rawlings violated a number of state hunting laws, including chasing and shooting at animals from vehicles and hunting in unlicensed and unpermitted land.
The investigation began when two Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers became suspicious that Rawlings was offering illegal hunts. He eventually took undercover agents on an illegal hunt and violated regulations in their presence.
Because the hunters hiring him mostly lived outside of Colorado, and transported the animals they killed back to their home states, Rawlings was charged with conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which makes wildlife crimes that cross state lines a federal offense.
“Their actions stripped wildlife from our landscapes and betrayed the foundational principles of ethical hunting,” Ault said. “Violations like these erode public trust in licensed guides, undermine decades of conservation progress, and tarnish the legacy of fair-chase hunting that ethical sportsmen and women work hard to preserve.”
CPW worked with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service agents during the investigation.
