Yellowstone elk shooter heads to prison
By TOM MORTON
Star-Tribune staff writer
Thursday, March 12, 2009 8:34 PM MDT
A southwestern Montana man soon will begin a four-year prison term for breaking firearms and wildlife laws when he shot an elk and dragged its head to his pickup inside Yellowstone National Park, according to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Michael David Belderrain killed the animal -- described as "a beautiful, wonderful elk" -- in Gallatin County, Mont., on Dec. 14, 2005. He was indicted in March 2007, pleaded guilty and apologized for his actions in August, and was sentenced on Feb. 26, 2008, by Chief U.S. District Court Judge William Downes in Casper.
Besides the 48 months for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and 12 months for two game violations -- all to be served concurrently -- Downes ordered Belderrain to pay $6,000 in restitution to the Yellowstone National Park Service Restitution Fund, plus a $1,000 fine and a $150 special assessment.
During the sentencing last year, Downes recounted Belderrain's criminal history involving firearms, illegal outfitting operations, alcohol-related crimes and violence. Downes also said the case underscored the reason to keep loaded weapons out of national parks.
Belderrain, of Whitehall, Mont., filed an appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in March 2008.
The appeal was not initially about the Yellowstone Park incident, but related anyway, according to the 10th Circuit's order of Jan. 29 upholding the Wyoming court's decision.
In March 2006, Belderrain pleaded guilty in state court in Montana to possessing an illegally taken elk shot in the Buffalo Horn Drainage northwest of Yellowstone. That plea agreement granted Belderrain immunity from further federal and state prosecution unless any new information surfaced.
At the time of this plea, the government knew an elk head was located in a local taxidermist's shop in January 2006, and Belderrain and others said this was from the elk killed in the Buffalo Horn Drainage. That carcass was never found. The government also knew of the discovery of a headless elk carcass found near Yellowstone in 2005, according to the order.
In his appeal, Belderrain argued the federal government should have known this head was from the elk taken near Yellowstone. He said this information was not new and therefore covered under his plea agreement barring any new federal prosecution, including prosecution in Wyoming, according to his appeal.
Belderrain did not indicate he was responsible for the killing of the elk near Yellowstone, and the government did not learn of the Yellowstone killing until after his plea agreement in Montana, according to the circuit court.
"However, particularly in light of the fact that his lies regarding the source of the elk head led the government to believe it came from another location, we are convinced that Defendant's involvement with the Yellowstone poaching was not information held by the government at the time he entered into the Montana plea agreement," according to the circuit court judges.
Belderrain, whose telephone number could not be found, will report to a federal prison on March 23.
Contact reporter Tom Morton at 307-266-0592 or
[email protected]SECOND STORY
Yellowstone's 'no man's land' remains
By TOM MORTON
Star-Tribune staff writer
The Michael Belderrain elk poaching case highlighted a conundrum involving the U.S. Constitution, a no-man's-land in Yellowstone National Park, and Wyoming's federal jurisdiction.
The problem has persisted for more than 120 years.
The Wyoming U.S. District is the only district in the nation that exceeds state borders.
Most of Yellowstone National Park's 3,472 square miles are within Wyoming's borders, but 260 square miles are in Montana and 50 square miles are in Idaho.
Congress created the park in 1872, and admitted Montana, Idaho and Wyoming into the Union in 1889 and 1890. But Congress put the entire park under Wyoming's federal jurisdiction, which was incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, according to Brian C. Kalt's article "The Perfect Crime" published in the January 2005 Georgetown Law Journal.
That left a legal loophole that could let someone get away with murder, Kalt wrote.
The Sixth Amendment guarantees "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and the district wherein the crime shall have been committed."
Article III Section 2 of the Constitution requires the federal government to try offenders in the state where a crime allegedly occurred.
Kalt wrote that a person accused of a crime committed either in the Montana or Idaho portions of Yellowstone must be tried by a jury from either of those states. According to the 2000 Census, Montana has about 40 residents in the park and Idaho has none.
So finding a jury pool in Montana would be very difficult and finding one in Idaho would be impossible, Kalt wrote.
In Belderrain's case, his public defender, the late Robert Rogers, applied Kalt's reasoning in an effort to dismiss the case. But Chief Wyoming U.S. Judge William Downes didn't buy it.
Downes acknowledged the conundrum caused by the literal interpretations of Article III Section 2 and the Sixth Amendment, but he had nothing else to go on for his decision, he wrote.
However, the conundrum made great copy for Cheyenne author C.J. Box's 2007 novel "Free Fire," in which a low-life lawyer kills four campers in Yellowstone in Idaho west of the Bechler Ranger Station and brags about his crimes because of the legal loophole.
The loophole remains, Box said Wednesday.
"The answer, as far as I know, is nothing has been done," he said.
Sen. Mike Enzi pursued the matter with the U.S. Justice Department and was told it wasn't a pressing issue, Box said.
But the conundrum and the novel have been good for tourism, he said. "I have heard, however, that visitation has increased in the previously obscure Bechler Falls area in Yellowstone's extreme southwestern corner."
Contact reporter Tom Morton at 307-266-0592 or
[email protected] 
