A Casper man lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for three years and was ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution after drowning a doe deer in the North Platte River and mutilating its fawn.

Appearing in Natrona County Circuit Court Thursday, David C. Robertson, born in 1993, pleaded guilty to a single count of taking big game without a license.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, a game warden was called to investigate a Stop Poaching call. The caller reported seeing Robertson and a woman floating the North Platte River on tubes near Fort Caspar.

The caller told Game and Fish that he saw Robertson and the woman maneuver themselves toward a doe deer that was swimming across the river. Robertson and the woman then chased the deer down the bank before leaving the caller's line of sight.

Though unable to see Robertson and his friend, the caller could hear the doe "bawling."

When the caller went to the last place he saw Robertson and the woman, he found a dead doe deer along with a fawn.

Photos from the case file show a fawn deer missing limbs.

A Mills Police officer confronted Robertson and the woman near the SW Wyoming Boulevard bridge after the two were trying to escape and had stashed their tubes.

Robertson and his companion told police that they were floating down the river when they saw the deer in the water. They then noticed it was attempting to deliver a fawn. As they were pulling the fawn from the doe, its limbs were torn off the body and they believed it was already dead.

Robertson said he thought the doe was exhausted and stressed, so he held its head under the water until it drowned.

In addition to the $4,000 restitution to the Wyoming Wildlife Protection Association, Robertson was ordered to pay $805 in fines.