Family to stand trial for poaching
KAYE THORNBRUGH | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 months, 2 weeks AGO
Kaye Thornbrugh is a second-generation Kootenai County resident who has been with the Coeur d’Alene Press for six years. She primarily covers Kootenai County’s government, as well as law enforcement, the legal system and North Idaho College. | June 4, 2026 1:00 AM
COEUR d’ALENE — A family accused of poaching four mountain lions and eight bobcats across four counties is expected to stand trial next week.
Last August, a Kootenai County grand jury indicted St. Maries residents Eddy Dills, Angela Dills and Daniel Dills on charges of conspiracy to commit unlawful killing of wildlife, conspiracy to sell unlawfully killed wildlife and conspiracy to conceal evidence, all felonies.
Angela and Eddy Dills are married; Daniel Dills is the couple’s adult son. All three have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The crimes allegedly occurred between May 2024 and February 2025 and spanned Kootenai, Shoshone, Benewah and Latah counties.
Prosecutors said the father and son, aged 65 and 22 years old, respectively, had lost their hunting privileges when they allegedly used hunting dogs to tree a mountain lion south of Wallace and to hunt another mountain lion near Leiberg Creek. They also allegedly used dogs to hunt near bobcat traps and near the Coeur d’Alene River.
Eddy and Daniel Dills allegedly dumped a mountain lion down an embankment after it had been unlawfully shot and killed, according to court records, in an effort to conceal an illegal kill.
“What spurred this investigation is that law enforcement knew their hunting licenses were revoked,” prosecuting attorney Monica Bushling said in court Wednesday.
On several occasions, 64-year-old Angela Dills allegedly accompanied her husband and son while they hunted hounds. She’s accused of completing mortality and harvest reports for animals that her husband and son had killed and selling the carcasses and hides to Moscow Hide and Fur in Moscow.
In 2024, Daniel Dills pleaded guilty to knowingly selling, purchasing or exchanging unlawfully killed wildlife, a felony, in Latah County, according to court records. His hunting license was suspended for three years.
The Columbian reported in 2019 that Eddy Dills received a 60-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to hunting a cougar with a dog in Cowlitz County, Wash., under an Alford plea. This practice is illegal in that state.
A five-day jury trial is scheduled to begin Monday. First District Judge John Cafferty said Wednesday that 90 prospective jurors will be called, exceeding the 65 to 70 typically called for a felony case.
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