Kootenai County wildlife poaching case heads to June jury trial

A North Idaho poaching case that has moved through grand jury scrutiny, prior convictions and felony charging is now headed for a five-day jury trial that could put the region’s wildlife enforcement priorities on public display.

Eddy A. Dills, Daniel D. Dills and Angela Y. Dills, all of St. Maries, were indicted by a Kootenai County grand jury in August 2025 on felony conspiracy counts tied to the alleged illegal killing, sale and concealment of wildlife. Prosecutors say the conduct involved four mountain lions and eight bobcats and stretched across Kootenai, Shoshone, Benewah and Latah counties between May 2024 and February 2025.

In court Monday, defense counsel indicated a plea agreement appears unlikely, putting the case on track for trial beginning June 8. That timeline matters in a county where hunting is part of daily life and where prosecutors are framing the allegations as more than a one-off violation. The charges point to repeated conduct, multiple jurisdictions and the alleged movement of hides and carcasses, the kind of activity law enforcement often treats as organized wildlife crime rather than a simple citation case.

Court records reported in January 2026 said prosecutors allege Eddy and Daniel Dills dumped a mountain lion down an embankment after it had been unlawfully shot and killed, an allegation that goes directly to concealment. Records also said Angela Dills sold carcasses and hides of mountain lions and bobcats to Moscow Hide and Fur in Moscow for a total of $1,725.

The case comes against a backdrop of earlier wildlife-related enforcement involving the same family. Daniel Dills pleaded guilty in 2024 in Latah County to knowingly selling, purchasing or exchanging unlawfully killed wildlife, a felony, and lost his hunting license for three years. Eddy Dills previously received a 60-day jail sentence after a 2019 Washington case in Cowlitz County ended in an Alford plea involving the unlawful taking of a cougar with a dog.

Idaho Fish and Game’s rules underscore why these allegations matter beyond the courtroom. The agency says a hunter who legally takes a mountain lion must present the skull and part of the hide with sex evidence attached within 10 days. It also says mountain lions can be hunted for ten months of the year in Idaho and multiple tags can be bought in a single year. For bobcats, the state manages them as furbearers under separate seasons and reporting rules. Fish and Game urges witnesses to report wildlife crimes through the Citizens Against Poaching hotline at 1-800-632-5999.

If the allegations are proven at trial, the case could become a reference point for how aggressively North Idaho prosecutors pursue alleged wildlife trafficking when it crosses county lines, involves commercially valuable hides and is tied to repeated conduct.