COEUR d’ALENE — A hunter on trial for poaching alongside his parents allegedly admitted to illegally taking animals, but jurors couldn’t hear that testimony Tuesday because it was deemed inadmissible.

It was the second day in the felony trial of Eddy and Angela Dills, a married couple from St. Maries, and their adult son, Daniel Dills, who are accused of conspiracy to commit unlawful killing of wildlife, conspiracy to sell unlawfully killed wildlife and conspiracy to conceal evidence. 

Prosecutors allege that the father and son used dogs to hunt mountain lions and bobcats throughout North Idaho while their hunting licenses were suspended. The pair are also accused of dumping a mountain lion in order to conceal an illegal kill. 

The state alleges that Angela Dills completed mortality and harvest reports for animals her husband and son had killed, then sold the hides and carcasses. 

Moscow resident Randall Cook took the stand Tuesday to discuss a hunting trip with the Dillses that occurred Sept. 29, 2024 around Cemetery Ridge in Shoshone County. Prosecutors said Cook received immunity in exchange for his testimony. 

Cook told jurors he was looking to kill a bear that day. He said he was in control of the hunting dogs, which he said belonged to Angela Dills. 

“Me and Danny had become pretty close friends just by hanging out and working together,” Cook said. “I knew Danny had gotten in trouble, so he can’t have dogs. Eddy had his past whatnot.” 

Daniel Dills lost his hunting license for three years, beginning in 2024, after pleading guilty to knowingly selling, purchasing or exchanging unlawfully killed wildlife in Latah County. In 2019, Eddy Dills lost his hunting privileges for life after pleading guilty to hunting a cougar with a dog in Washington, where the practice is illegal. 

Cook said the dogs chased a mountain lion into a cave, where the lion killed one of them, a dog named Buck. 

After the dog’s death, Cook said Daniel Dills and his mother returned to St. Maries, while Eddy Dills remained. 

Though he did not have a mountain lion tag, Cook said he was angry about Buck’s death and determined to kill the animal. He said the dogs soon treed the lion. 

“I shot the lion out of the tree,” he said. “Eddy helped to skin it.” 

Prosecuting attorney Monica Bushling suggested Cook’s testimony this week differed from his testimony before a grand jury last year. 

Erin Landers, a special investigator for Idaho Fish and Game, briefly took the stand. She said she visited Cook at his workplace to inquire about the Cemetery Ridge hunting trip. 

“Did Mr. Cook tell you the only thing he did was shoot the mountain lion and (the Dillses) did the rest?” prosecuting attorney Art Verharen asked, to a chorus of objections from defense counsel. 

Landers never answered the question because the court determined that the answer would be hearsay. 

Prosecutors and defense counsel sparred Tuesday over the admissibility of certain evidence. 

Outside the presence of the jury, First District Judge John Cafferty said he had viewed a recording at the center of the debate, in which Daniel Dills admitted to his probation officer to illegal takings and placed himself at the scene of the mountain lion killing at Cemetery Ridge, contrary to Cook’s testimony. 

Cafferty ultimately determined the recorded admissions to be hearsay and therefore inadmissible at trial. 

Travis Meadows, a regional investigator for Fish and Game, described for jurors his response to a call from a group of hunters who encountered the Dillses around Little North Fork Coeur d’Alene River on Feb. 1, 2025. 

Meadows said he followed tire tracks and a trail of blood to a spot where a dead male mountain lion appeared to have been dumped after someone shot it in the eye. 

“The mountain lion had not been there very long,” he said. “You could still feel the warmth from the carcass.” 

He photographed bloody boot prints in the snow, which he said matched the size and tread of a pair of boots that police later seized from Daniel Dills’ home. 

Meadows said he also reviewed the contents of Daniel Dills’ cellphone, which police seized during the investigation. 

The phone contained a photo, dated Jan. 1, 2025, of Daniel Dills holding up a dead mountain lion with a hunting dog at his feet. Another photo, dated Jan. 18, showed a treed bobcat. A still from a video dated Feb. 16 showed dogs surrounding a bobcat in a creek drainage. 

In February 2025, Meadows said the phone was used to search different phrases on Google, including whether a person can shoot a mountain lion with a “rim rifle,” whether game wardens can stop someone in the field after their hunting license has been revoked, whether a person can be forced to take a lie detector test while on probation and what crime is constituted by taking a mountain lion without a tag. 

RJ Williams, who was Daniel Dills’ probation officer during the time of the investigation, addressed the court outside the presence of the jury. 

Williams said he was present when Fish and Game officers responded to Daniel Dills’ home in February 2025 and spoke to Dills alone after the other officers left. He said he asked who shot the mountain lion on Feb. 1. 

“He responded that it was his father that ended up shooting the mountain lion,” Williams said. 

That testimony, too, was deemed to be hearsay and was not repeated in front of jurors.