In the late hours of a March evening in 2010, a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer, Christopher A. Upton, a 37-year-old male, was on patrol in the Oconee National Forest in Jasper County, Georgia. He was conducting surveillance at the Ocmulgee Bluff Equestrian Trailhead, an area that had been the subject of recent complaints. Little did he know that a group of men were also in the woods that night, hunting for coyotes with a high-powered rifle equipped with a night-vision scope.
From the bed of a pickup truck, Norman Clinton Hale, one of the hunters, scanned the darkness. He later claimed to have seen what he believed to be the 'bright eyes' of a coyote and fired his rifle. The shot struck Officer Upton. After the shot, another member of the hunting party went to investigate and discovered that a person had been hit. Despite having cell phones, no one in the hunting party immediately called for emergency assistance or attempted to render aid to the fallen officer. It would be over an hour before a 911 call was finally made. By the time help arrived, Officer Upton had succumbed to his injuries.
The investigation that followed uncovered the events of that tragic night and led to the arrest of Norman Clinton Hale. In November 2011, Hale pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, hindering a federal investigation, and hunting violations. He was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison and three years of probation. Two other men who were with Hale at the time of the shooting, Timothy Grant and Roberto Flores, were also charged. They both pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony for failing to report the crime. Grant was sentenced to three years of probation, which included two 48-hour periods of jail time, and a fine, while Flores received two years of probation. A third man, Michael Moscardelli, who was not present at the shooting but later returned to the scene with Hale, was charged with making false statements to law enforcement after misleading investigators about who was present at the incident. He was sentenced to two years of probation and a fine.
