MONROE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida man is facing a felony and multiple misdemeanors after he illegally killed an alligator in the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area, according to an arrest report obtained by Local 10 News on Wednesday.
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According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the crime happened on Saturday in a portion of Big Cypress off Loop Road in mainland Monroe County.
The report states that officers were alerted that Vincent Edward Quinn, 37, of Miami Springs, had been seen harvesting an alligator out of season and was headed east on the Tamiami Trail.
FWC officers said they couldn’t find Quinn on U.S. 41, but were able to locate him at his home in the 900 block of Apache Street.
“I asked if he knew why we had arrived at this residence, to which he stated he did not. I then explained that we were here due to a report of him harvesting an American alligator out of season,” FWC Officer Miguel Espinosa wrote in the report. “He claimed that he did harvest one; however, it was not here, and it was at the halfway house where he stays. I asked one more time if the alligator was in his possession, to which he then admitted it was on a table inside the backyard and would claim full responsibility for harvesting the alligator.”
Authorities said they found the alligator’s tail and other parts, including hide and meat.
Espinosa wrote that Quinn “willfully and wantonly wasted the upper portion of the alligator by leaving it on the side of the road after removing the tail” and did not properly kill the animal.
“The alligator skull appears to have significant blunt force trauma,” the officer wrote.
Quinn had “no valid hunting license, alligator trapping license or CITES tag,” according to FWC.
Officers arrested him on a felony charge of illegal killing of an alligator, plus misdemeanor conservation and animal cruelty charges.
He was taken to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office jail facility on Plantation Key, where he remained Wednesday on a $70,000 bond, jail records show.
He’s scheduled to be arraigned on Feb. 4.