New trial ordered for man accused of illegally hunting thinhorn sheep

FORT NELSON, B.C. – A judge in Fort Nelson has decided to overturn a man’s conviction for hunting a thinhorn ram mountain sheep in 2022 outside of open season.

On December 15th, BC Supreme Court Justice Matthew Taylor ordered a new trial for James Dylan Massey, but stopped short of acquitting him.

Massey, licensed in the Omineca Peace region, was found guilty in August 2024 by a provincial court judge, but he appealed the verdict, arguing the judge’s interpretation and application of the law and regulation was errant.

Taylor’s decision said when Massey brought the ram for compulsory inspection, authorized inspector David Maurice Jenkins deemed it to be less than eight years of age and reported to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.

The provincial court judge found Massey had not shown, on a balance of probabilities, that he acted with due diligence or took reasonable steps to avoid the wrongful act.

Taylor concluded the lower court judge “never made a clear factual finding that the Crown had failed to prove that the horn curl test was not met beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“Further,” Taylor said, “sitting as an appellate court it would not be appropriate for me to make my own factual findings with respect to whether the evidence at trial was sufficient to meet the horn curl test, or to reweigh the credibility and reliability of the testimony of the different expert witnesses, particularly in light of the provincial court judge’s decision to limit his factual findings.”

After hearing the case on October 30th in Dawson Creek, Taylor decided to vacate the conviction and remit the matter to provincial court for retrial. But he declined to acquit Massey.

“It is not the role of appellate courts to substitute their own findings of fact on these issues, or to reweigh the evidence, absent a palpable and overriding error,” he wrote. “I have found no such error with respect to these factual issues.”

Massey had argued he should be acquitted because he alleged the Crown expert used the wrong measuring equipment and the Crown was responsible for detaching the horns. Taylor said the factual matters were already considered in provincial court.

According to the B.C. government, B.C.’s northern third is home to approximately 12,250 thinhorn sheep.