3 charged with illegally hunting deer in Utah County

PROVO — Three Utahns are facing charges after Utah County prosecutors allege they illegally hunted multiple deer over the past few years.

Jeremy Edward Thomas, 36, and Tanza Ann Thomas, 34, of Springville, and Braiden Wade Mattinson, 33, of Lindon, were all charged with wanton destruction of protected wildlife, a third-degree felony, in 4th District Court on Monday, as well as multiple misdemeanor counts of wanton destruction of protected wildlife and a few additional charges.

The charges stem from an investigation that began in Mapleton over a year ago. A pair of tipsters told Utah Division of Wildlife Resources conservation officers, who are now part of the Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement, that they saw a man holding a hunting bow and using truck headlights to illuminate a buck deer in a Mapleton lot, which is illegal to hunt, according to Utah state code.

The tipster said the man told him he wasn’t hunting but later said he “has been hunting this deer all year,” according to a police affidavit included in the charging documents. The tipsters took a video of the truck and its license plate, which a natural resources officer used to track down Jeremy Thomas, but the ensuing investigation led to “other reports of suspicious deer hunting behavior” involving him and his wife, Tanza Thomas, and Mattinson, the report added.

Jeremy Thomas later told a conservation officer that he had been “spotlighting” a deer with Mattinson on the night of the initial tip, and arrows in his possession matched an arrow collected from a property in the area a day after the alleged run-in, the report continued. It added that a co-defendant, whose name is not included in the document, told police that the Thomases and Mattinson “have been spotlighting and hunting deer with archery equipment for several years.”

The unnamed person let police search their phone, where police came across a video that “showed all three defendants shooting a deer at night with archery equipment,” as well as photos sent from Tanza Thomas showing her “with several buck deer that were killed out of hunting season and without valid hunting tags,” according to the charging document.

Ten sets of buck mule deer antlers, a hunting bow and arrows were recovered during a search warrant of the home, as well as cellphones belonging to the Thomases. Police said the phones revealed evidence of all three “hunted deer at night using archery equipment and the aid spotlights” in the Mapleton area outside of hunting seasons.

They said there were no “valid archery deer hunting permits” associated with the Thomases in some cases, while Mattinson had one in 2023. At least one of the deer seen in the video appeared to be of trophy size, the report added.

Poaching cases range in severity but are automatically elevated to a felony if a trophy animal is involved in the case, per Utah’s poaching penalties that were updated in 2024. Illegally killing multiple nontrophy deer can also lead to a felony charge.

Court records did not show whether the Thomases or Mattinson had retained legal representation.

A conviction for illegally killing or possessing protected wildlife can result in fines, restitution payments and the loss of hunting privileges in Utah and 48 other states, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The agency notes that there’s a minimum restitution fee of $12,000 for a trophy deer that is illegally killed.

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