Police: 2 Men Charged After Sniping Deer From Car, Dumping Bodies

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Two men have been charged after police say they killed eight deer in one night in Baltimore and Howard counties last October.

John Dimingo Gallano IV of Pasadena and Christopher Michael Johnson of Halethorpe, both 20 years old, were charged with 73 counts of illegal hunting last week after a year-long investigation.

According to Maryland Natural Resources Police, they shot the deer with a crossbow from a vehicle with the aid of a spotlight between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Oct. 18, 2015, near Spring Grove Hospital Center in Baltimore County and in Ellicott City in Howard County. None of the deer were logged in or recorded, as required by state law, per MNRP, and neither man had written permission to be hunting on any of the properties where the deer were shot.

Gallano and Johnson dumped the carcasses of a nine-point buck and three four-point bucks in Pasadena neighborhoods, per an MNRP investigation. Two deer – a six-point buck and a doe – were taken to an Anne Arundel County wild game processor. Two deer were not recovered.

Gallano has been charged with trespassing, hunting deer with spotlights, nighttime hunting, hunting from a vehicle, shooting from on across a road, hunting within a safety zone, hunting on private land, failing to report a kill, wanton waste of deer, false entry in a public record and illegal dumping. He is due in Anne Arundel County District Court Oct. 11, in Baltimore County District Court Nov. 14, and in Howard County District Court Nov. 17.

Johnson was charged with trespassing, hunting deer with spotlights, nighttime hunting, hunting from a vehicle, shooting from on across a road, hunting within a safety zone, hunting on private land, failing to report a kill, wanton waste of deer, possessing a loaded crossbow in a vehicle, false entry in a public record and illegal dumping. He is due in Baltimore County District Court Nov. 14 and Howard County District Court Nov. 17.

The charges could result in fines of more than $50,000 and jail time for each of them.

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