There are lines most hunters won’t cross, even without a game warden breathing down their neck. But one Washington man crossed those lines again and again, which recently landed him one of the stiffest sentences for poaching the Evergreen State has dealt in years.
Ronald Livermore, 77, of Okanogan County, was sentenced to 43.5 months in prison after pleading guilty to seven felony charges tied to big game poaching and illegal firearm possession, according to the Washington Attorney General’s Office.
State officials say it’s the longest agreed recommendation for a recreational poaching sentence in almost a decade. The sentence reflects what prosecutors described as nearly 20 years of poaching, animal abuse, and ignoring basic hunting laws across the Pacific Northwest.
Livermore’s record dates back to at least 2008, when he was convicted for spotlighting deer in Central Oregon and for hiding a sawed-off .22 rifle and a homemade suppressor in a secret compartment in his vehicle. That conviction stripped him of firearm rights, making any future offenses automatic felonies.
But Livermore’s hunting violations didn’t stop there. His most recent case involved incidents in 2023 and 2024, when Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers caught him spotlighting and recklessly “shooting into the woods whenever he saw something he thought might be an animal.”
He pleaded not guilty to those charges and was released to home confinement with an ankle monitor.
While Livermore’s case was working its way through court, WDFW officers initiated an investigation, “diligently conducting night patrols and increasing their presence in the backcountry to discover illegal activity,” according to a WDFW statement.
During the investigation, wildlife officers found a deer near Livermore’s home that had been shot through the spine with a small-caliber round and left alive. Deer hunting with cartridges smaller than .24 caliber is illegal in Washington. The discovery of the injured deer led to a search warrant.
Inside the home, officers uncovered multiple functional homemade firearms built from umbrella handles, canes, and PVC pipe hidden in a bathroom compartment. Officers also found another shot deer and evidence that Livermore had been baiting deer to his porch and shooting them at close range.
“Washington’s hunting laws maintain opportunities for hunters while ensuring that hunting is as safe, ethical, and sustainable as possible,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in a press release. “Cases like this remind us why those laws exist.”
“We hope this will deter future illegal activities, sending a clear message that violating fish and wildlife laws may land you in jail for a very long time,” WDFW said in a social media post.
Livermore ultimately pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful firearm possession, along with charges related to illegal big game hunting and possession of a short-barreled rifle.
Read the full article here