On Wednesday, a Lampasas jury convicted William "Billy" Kornegay, 43, of Eden of trapping, transporting and transplanting a white-tailed deer from the wild without a permit from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

The Class B misdemeanor involved a 10-point white-tailed deer that was illegally darted with a tranquilizer gun and captured in Mills County, then sold and delivered to a high-fenced ranch in Lampasas County, said Larry Allison, Lampasas County attorney.

"Kornegay, an experienced deer broker and agent for several licensed deer breeders, did not know he was actually negotiating with a game warden in an undercover role and claimed to have made $217,000 in one year brokering deer with over 360 orders for white-tailed buck deer," Allison said.

Kornegay arranged the sale of the captured deer for the under- cover game warden and collected a broker's fee of $1,000 (20 percent of the purchase price) for causing the deer to be transplanted from Mills to Lampasas County without a permit.

Records show, said Allison, that Kornegay's normal broker fee with a licensed deer breeder with a permit is just 5 percent of the purchase price.

State law prohibits the sale of a deer from the wild, and the transportation and transplant of a deer must be done only with a permit confirmed by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. There is no fee for the permit, and the sale of a non-wild deer is lawful, but the deer must be a "breed" deer from a licensed deer breeder.

Following the conviction, Kornegay was sentenced to six months in the Lampasas County Jail and assessed a $1,500 fine. The jail time was suspended, and he was placed on probation.

Lampasas Assistant County Attorney John Greenwood prosecuted the case, and Sgt. Chris Davis, a game warden with the TP&WD, was the lead investigator and undercover agent.

Trials are still pending in Lampasas, Bell and Mills counties for other individuals involved in the case and other illegal deer captures and transplants.