CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a hunter has been sentenced to just under a decade in prison for illegal possession of a weapon used to shoot and seriously wound an Ohio Department of Natural Resources officer investigating a deer poaching complaint in 2020.

What You Need To Know

  • The hunter, Brian Liming, pleaded guilty in August

  • Liming was convicted of felonious assault, evidence-tampering and misdemeanor hunting charges

  • The ODNR officer was investigating a deer poaching complaint

  • Liming was sentenced to nine years and 364 days in prison

The U.S. attorney’s office for the southern district of Ohio said last week that 45-year-old Brian Liming of Jamestown pleaded guilty in August and was sentenced to nine years and 364 days in prison.

Clinton County prosecutors said earlier that Liming was convicted of felonious assault, evidence-tampering and misdemeanor hunting charges. Federal prosecutors said he was sentenced to 54 months on those convictions, and his federal sentence will run consecutively to his local sentence.

Authorities said Liming and two other men were in a pickup truck looking for deer near Martinsville in December 2020 when they spotted a buck in a wooded area. Prosecutors said in court documents that he fired a shot intended to chase out the buck, but the bullet struck and wounded the officer.

The Dayton Daily News reports that prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Liming had no valid permit to hunt deer and was trespassing, and after shooting the officer he “chose not to render any aid or assistance but instead fled the scene,” later denying that he pulled the trigger and blaming someone else.

Prosecutors said the 25-year veteran of the department survived but spent months in the hospital and will suffer lifelong effects from the shooting, the newspaper reported.