New Kirt Darner sentencing date set

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A second sentencing date has been set for Kirt Darner, the former Grants big-game park owner who pleaded guilty to charges of stolen elk, illegal transportation of stolen elk, both felonies; and a misdemeanor, no bill of sale for those elk.

Darner had a sentencing date originally set for Oct. 14, but it was postponed because his attorney, Bill Ray Blackburn, of Albuquerque, had a conflict with his schedule.

On Thursday, Blackburn filed a motion to vacate the new sentencing date because he has a murder trial at the same time.

The court will most likely cancel this date and set a new one, meaning the pattern of delaying appearing in court continues in the sentencing phase as it did in the trial phase.

Hearings and trial dates were postponed because of motions by Blackburn for various reasons, at least five times between June 19, 2006, and March 20, 2008. Reasons included scheduling conflicts, and Darner’s medical problems.

Darner pleaded guilty on June 23 meaning that he could serve up to a maximum of 4.5 years in state prison, be fined up to $10,000, in addition to any fines the judge may impose.

Lemuel Martinez, 13th Judicial District Attorney, said the plea agreement, after two years of postponed trials, was the identical agreement Darner was offered within a few months of his grand jury indictment.

Darner was initially indicted in connection with 20 felonies and misdemeanors including allegedly illegal possession of sheep’s heads and elk possession and transportation, in his game park on Mount Taylor, for which he had no sales receipt.

Martinez said his office is committed to prosecuting any case involving illegal possession of wildlife in the state and the region.

The two big-game sheep’s heads were stolen from a taxidermist in Colorado, and wound up in Darner’s possession in Grants, Martinez said. Possession of the sheep’s heads were not part of the plea agreement.

The original indictment included the following charges: Receiving stolen property (one each Rocky Mountain and Desert Bighorn sheep skulls), unlawful possession of big game (elk), transportation of stolen livestock (elk), conspiracy to transport livestock (elk), failure to submit an invoice for sale of big game (elk), failure to have two forms of identification (elk), and having no health certificates (elk).

“We intend to ask the judge for the full prison time (of 4.5 years),” Martinez said.

If Darner had been convicted on all the original charges he could have served a maximum penalty of nine days short of 44 years in state prison, a fine up to $58,000, or both.