Texas Man Sentenced to Prison for Shooting Bald Eagle, Hiding Injured Bird Under Garage Tarp

HOUSTON — A Porter, Texas, man was sentenced to 14 days in federal prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine Friday after pleading guilty to shooting and killing a federally protected bald eagle in his backyard, then attempting to hide the wounded bird beneath a tarp in his garage.

Santos Guerrero, 43, was sentenced by U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Bray following his guilty plea earlier this year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. Guerrero pleaded guilty on May 14, nearly two years after authorities said he shot the eagle at his home on Oct. 11, 2024.

According to federal prosecutors, authorities initially responded to the scene after receiving reports of the shooting. Investigators reviewed video footage showing the eagle being shot and falling from a tree, and they subsequently traveled to Guerrero’s home, where they identified the same tree captured in the footage. Investigators eventually located the injured bird hidden beneath a tarp inside Guerrero’s garage.

Prosecutors said Guerrero later lied to investigators about the incident. The court reviewed both surveillance video and body camera footage documenting the eagle both before it was shot and after it was subsequently discovered in Guerrero’s garage.

The eagle was transported to an animal hospital following its discovery, but veterinarians ultimately made the decision to euthanize the bird due to the severity of its injuries. According to federal prosecutors, a necropsy determined that the bullet had significantly damaged one of the eagle’s wings, while its subsequent fall from the tree caused additional serious injuries, including liver fractures, internal bleeding and a broken leg.

Although bald eagles have not been classified as an endangered species since 2007, the birds remain federally protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a law that prohibits killing or possessing bald and golden eagles without proper authorization. Those protections extend beyond the birds themselves to also cover eagle parts, nests and eggs, meaning violations of the law can carry significant federal penalties regardless of an eagle’s current conservation status.

When Guerrero entered his guilty plea in May, prosecutors indicated he faced a potential sentence of up to one year in federal prison, along with a maximum fine of $100,000. Judge Bray’s ultimate sentence of 14 days in prison alongside the $5,000 fine fell considerably below that maximum potential penalty.

Following Friday’s sentencing, Guerrero remains free on bond. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he will be required to voluntarily surrender to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility that has not yet been determined, a common arrangement in federal cases involving relatively short custodial sentences, allowing the defendant to report to a designated facility on their own rather than being taken into custody immediately following sentencing.

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, first enacted in 1940 and later amended to include golden eagles, has served as one of the primary federal legal tools used to prosecute individuals who kill or harm the birds, even in cases, such as Guerrero’s, where the shooting occurred on the defendant’s own private property. The law reflects the bald eagle’s enduring status as a national symbol of the United States, a designation that has continued to afford the species legal protection even after its formal removal from the federal endangered species list nearly two decades ago, a delisting that reflected a significant conservation success following decades of population decline driven largely by the pesticide DDT and habitat loss throughout the 20th century.

Federal wildlife protection cases involving bald eagles are prosecuted through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s law enforcement division, working in coordination with U.S. Attorney’s offices across the country. Penalties for violations can vary significantly depending on the specific circumstances of a case, including whether a defendant is found to have acted knowingly, whether the bird’s death was accidental, and whether any additional conduct, such as Guerrero’s alleged false statements to investigators, factors into how prosecutors approach sentencing recommendations.

Cases involving the killing of protected bald eagles periodically draw significant public attention given the bird’s status as a national symbol, and federal prosecutors have continued to pursue charges against individuals found to have violated the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act in various parts of the country in recent years, reflecting the law’s ongoing role in protecting the species even outside its formal designation as endangered or threatened.

As of Friday’s sentencing, the case against Guerrero has concluded with his federal prison term and fine, closing out a legal process that spanned nearly two years from the original October 2024 shooting to his eventual guilty plea and sentencing. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas has not indicated whether Guerrero faces any additional state-level charges connected to the incident beyond the federal case addressed in Friday’s sentencing hearing.