Investigation exposes black market hunting tag scheme and group harassing wildlife with helicopter

TWIN FALLS — An electric company executive and a pilot have been charged after they reportedly harassed wildlife with a helicopter, illegally sold hunting tags and much more.

According to court filings, Karl Studer, 43, was charged with three felonies: one count of unlawful possession of wildlife, and two counts of felony unlawful killing or wasting wildlife. He was also charged with 17 misdemeanors and Fish and Game violations for:

• Taking more than a lawful bag or possessing more than one deer, elk, pronghorn, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, black bear, or gray wolf.
• Molesting game animals or birds with a motorized vehicle or unmanned aircraft.
• Hunting to spot or communicate the location of wildlife from an aircraft.
• Interfering with hunting, fishing and predator control.
• Criminal solicitation to commit a crime.
• Outfitting and guiding without a license.

The term “molest” refers to the annoying, disturbing, chasing, following after, stalking or lying in wait for, livestock or domestic animals, according to Law Insider.

Police reports say Studer owns 3 String Cattle Company Ranch and is the president of electric at Quantra. The company website says Studer is a “co-founder of Probst Electric and Summit Line Construction, Inc., operating companies acquired by Quanta Services in 2013.”

Probst Electric and Summit Line Construction are both based in Heber, Utah.

Kevin Sielaff, 48, was charged with eight misdemeanors for molesting game animals or birds with a motorized vehicle or unmanned aircraft, hunting to spot or communicate the location of wildlife from an aircraft, and interference with hunting, fishing and predator control.

Sielaff flies for Alpine Aviation LLC, according to court documents.

Several others were also charged with misdemeanors related to the allegations.

Allegations

In a probable cause affidavit, a senior conservation officer with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game says Sielaff and Studer “hunt(ed), scouted for wildlife with the helicopter and during numerous scouting trips molested wildlife with said helicopter.”

Court documents say Studer hired Sielaff to take him scouting for big game animals via helicopter.

The officer writes that, according to multiple invoices, Sielaff was paid approximately $133,500 to fly Probst Electric employees so they could shoot coyotes.

Officials also say Studer “killed two trophy bull elk” and “failed to immediately tag them as required by law.”

Studer also allegedly “continued to hunt after killing the two elk, taking a third, and continuing to hunt even after that, attempting to overlimit on elk.”

Officials also claim there is evidence of “the unlawful marketing, sale, and solicitation for Landowner Appreciation Program (LAP) tags involving two men named Rodney Gonsales and Ryan Smith, marketing and selling tags and Studer soliciting those tags.”

What happened in 2023?

Illegal selling of hunting tags

The 66-page affidavit details a plethora of allegations, including that in 2023, Studer spent $114,920 on chances to win “super tags.” These are sold on a lottery-based system, and Studer ended up winning tags for deer, pronghorns, moose, elk, black bears, mountain lions, black bears, two gray wolves, an elk muzzleloader and a deer LAP.

According to the report, Studer paid at least $153,000 to multiple people for hunting tags, which are nontransferable and illegal to sell.

The officer reportedly found numerous text messages showing they knew selling the hunting tags was unlawful.

“During (a) text exchange, Smith says, ‘We want to keep the landowner to ourselves,’ to which Studer responds, ‘Agreed, let’s leave it very quiet’ and Smith responds, ‘It’s a good resource and don’t want anyone else to find out. Thanks,'” writes the officer.

On Aug. 1, Smith allegedly texted Studer, “I didn’t end up getting any deer tags this year. If you have any rifle tags available, I’d buy one from you.”

Studer replied, “I’ll see what rifle deer tags I have. I think we only got one of the 52 tags. My Dad might kill me if I let that go.”

Three days later, text messages indicate Smith went to Studer’s home to buy tags.

Paying for unlawful hunting guiding

According to court documents, Studer provided a man named Landon Sielaff with a Starlink so he could also guide him toward animals for hunting while working remotely for his full-time job.

Text messages show after Landon told Studer he would think about guiding for him, Studer replied, “$$ – I’ll make it work it for ya.”

Studer also reportedly provided Landon with “hunting gear, a phone, a spotting scope, tripods, a phone scope and a place to stay.”

On Nov. 11, 2022, Landon texted Studer, “Hey karl, quick question for you. Are you going to 1099 me or is everything under the table? I’m trying to figure out what taxes are going look like with the extra income.”

Studer reportedly replied, “No, 1099 – just under the table.”

Helicopter molesting wildlife

On July 30, a man reported that he was near Mormon Reservoir looking for deer when he saw a “red helicopter with a white stripe come from the east and begin circling around a butte on SV Ranch property by the gravel pit.”

The helicopter flew toward a crowd of deer that started running and split into two groups. According to court documents, the helicopter followed the deer for a mile and a half and was 200 yards off the ground.

Three more witnesses spoke to police, who said they took photos of the helicopter while it was molesting the deer.

One of the witnesses described the incident as “groups of deer acting flurried around and panicked when the helicopter circled them.”

The officer determined Sielaff owned the helicopter due to the description and tail number.

They further tied the allegations to both Sielaff and Studer from their cell phone GPS data, including a video found in Studer’s cloud account reportedly showing the helicopter “stirring up a group of deer and then following after a large buck that is running from the helicopter.”

On Aug. 11, the officer found more videos, this time in Sielaff’s cloud account, showing several images and videos of a helicopter “clearly harassing multiple deer, most of which are large trophy class mule deer,” according to court documents.

Officers found text messages between Studer, Sielaff and another man, Brandon Wilcox, on Aug. 10 and 11. The messages discussed departure times to molest the animals and alerted each other to when they saw animals both on the ground and in the helicopter.

At one point, Wilcox messaged the group, “WE F****** FOUND HIM!!” to which Studer replied, “Where is that b**** at??” Wilcox responded with the location and said “That mother Ffer needs to die.”

Officials received more complaints from different individuals about the helicopter molesting animals on Aug. 12, 14 and 24; Sept. 1; Oct. 1 and 14; and Nov. 2 and 18, 2023.

Illegally keeping a live, injured pronghorn buck

Officials say they found two videos proving that Studer illegally possessed a live pronghorn buck after it was shot.

Court documents say the videos were found in Studer’s iCloud account, showing “a pronghorn gasping with its head up in the back of a brown Toyota truck.” Studer is allegedly heard in the background while the animal is gasping, saying, “Do you think you should go home and hang at the ranch?” He also claims he shot the buck.

In text messages, Studer claims he shot the animal, it passed out, and then woke up in the back of his truck.

EastIdahoNews.com contacted the Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs, who declined to comment. We also contacted the Magic Valley Region Fish and Game Regional Office, who also declined to comment.

We also contacted Studer’s attorney, Charles Peterson, as well as Sielaff’s attorney, Michael Bartlett, and left both messages, but we have not heard back from either.

Court proceedings

Studer is expected to appear in court on Wednesday in Twin Falls County. If convicted, he could face at least 15 years in prison.

Sielaff pleaded not guilty to all charges on Aug. 15, and is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 16.

Though all suspects have been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean they committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.