PIERRE, S.D. (DRG News) – A Faulkton man convicted of Unlawful Taking of Bald Eagles, Unlawful Taking of Migratory Birds and Unlawful Use of Restricted Use Pesticide has been sentenced in federal court.

43-year-old Kevin Deiter was ordered to pay a total of $29,400 in restitution, $9,800 per eagle and a $5,000 fine, and a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $40.

Information from the US Attorney’s Office says on March 21, 2017, the US Fish and Wildlife Service received notification from the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department that three dead bald eagles were recovered in Faulk County. In the area where the bald eagles were recovered, law enforcement noted impression marks from silage bags that had been removed, a dead skunk, a dead mink, two partially intact chicken eggs and a collection of chicken egg shell fragments.

During the investigation Dieter admitted to injecting the chicken eggs with carbamate carbofuran and placing them near the silage bags in order to keep skunks and mink from destroying the silage bags. Investigators determined the three bald eagles, the skunk and the mink all died of carbamate carbofuran poisoning.