{"id":13869,"date":"2026-01-21T18:15:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/3-active-duty-soldiers-cited-fined-for-poaching-mule-deer-on-fort-carson-colorado-state-land\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:41:03","slug":"3-active-duty-soldiers-cited-fined-for-poaching-mule-deer-on-fort-carson-colorado-state-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/3-active-duty-soldiers-cited-fined-for-poaching-mule-deer-on-fort-carson-colorado-state-land\/","title":{"rendered":"3 active duty soldiers cited, fined for poaching mule deer on Fort Carson, Colorado state land"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=5cd1c072-a31e-43a9-98a1-8834fc167a90&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1900\" alt=\"A mule deer looks up from a field of dead sunflowers north of Mancos in this 2010 photo. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has reported its first case of chronic wasting disease in Southwestern Colorado.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A mule deer looks up from a field of dead sunflowers north of Mancos in this 2010 photo. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has reported its first case of chronic wasting disease in Southwestern Colorado.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Three active duty soldiers were convicted of dozens of wildlife charges, fined thousands of dollars, and face a possible lifetime suspension to their hunting licenses, after state wildlife officials said Tuesday the soldiers poached five mule deer at Fort Carson, a U.S. Army post south of Colorado Springs, and one on state land.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation started after a hunter alerted officers at the post about a poached mule deer buck in a training area in November 2024. Boot tracks in a snowy field then led Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer Deme Wright to a dead buck partially processed and abandoned with select cuts of meat removed and its antlers sawed off.<\/p>\n<p>About 100 yards away, a second dead deer, a doe, was also partially processed and abandoned, the agency said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>More boot tracks led Wright to a vehicle tied to one of the soldiers. A search warrant for the car and the soldier\u2019s cellphone showed evidence of poaching and proof of trespassing on military and state lands.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with wildlife officers, Army Sgt. Jacob Curtis Keyser admitted to poaching six mule deer and he voluntarily turned over his rifle, the agency said.<\/p>\n<p>Keyser, 23, faced 30 wildlife charges, a $19,005 fine, 180 suspension points on his hunting license. His hunting rifle will be destroyed by CPW, now that the investigation is complete. Army Staff Sgt. Juan Salcedo, his conspirator, faced 15 charges, a $8,817 fine and 65 suspension points.<\/p>\n<p>Court documents show Salcedo, 35, pleaded guilty to several charges in June.<\/p>\n<p>A third, unnamed soldier, was fined $900 for disposing of illegally taken venison after Keyser\u2019s initial interview with CPW.<\/p>\n<p>The charges against all three soldiers are misdemeanors.<\/p>\n<p>A Fort Carson spokesperson did not immediately return a list of questions from<em id=\"emphasis-6b14b5df4b097329b74e74f72eb5de5e\"> The Colorado Sun,<\/em> seeking the soldiers\u2019 current status at the Army post.<\/p>\n<p>During a Colorado Parks and Wildlife suspension hearing, officials will determine whether to suspend the soldiers\u2019 hunting and fishing licenses. They could face a lifetime ban across all 50 states under the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, CPW said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>investigation started after a hunter alerted officers at the Army post about a poached buck in a training area in November 2024 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13869"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77094,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13869\/revisions\/77094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13869"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}