A Springville husband and wife, along with a third accomplice, now face felony charges after authorities say the trio spent years illegally spotlighting and killing trophy-class mule deer in the canyons east of Mapleton, Utah.
Jeremy Edward Thomas, 36, his wife Tanza Ann Thomas, 34, and Braiden Wade Mattinson, 33, of Lindon, were formally charged this week in 4th District Court. Prosecutors accuse them of multiple counts of wanton destruction of protected wildlife, a third-degree felony in Utah when the crimes involve trophy animals or repeated offenses.
The case began with a single night in 2023 after two residents noticed a pickup truck parked in an empty field near Mapleton with its headlights trained on a large buck. They watched a man step out, draw a compound bow, and shoot the deer. The witnesses recorded the truck’s license plate and immediately reported the incident to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
That tip led conservation officers straight to Jeremy Thomas, who when questioned, admitted to the spotlighting incident and implicated Mattinson as his partner in crime on that fateful evening. As investigators began to ramp up the investigation, what started as one illegal hunt quickly unraveled into evidence of consecutive years of nighttime poaching.
A search warrant executed at the Thomases’ Springville home turned up damning proof. Reports indicated that officers recovered at least ten complete sets of buck mule deer antlers stored in the garage. They also seized a bow and arrows that matched evidence from the original scene, but perhaps most critically, they were able to gain access and download hundreds of photos and videos from the couple’s phones.
It was within those videos and images that told the rest of the story. Jeremy’s bride, Tanza Thomas, appeared in multiple photographs smiling next to freshly killed bucks, some still in velvet and clearly taken far outside legal seasons. Other videos showed all three defendants taking turns shooting deer frozen in vehicle headlights. Investigating officers indicated that at least one animal was a trophy-class buck with antlers well beyond the 24-inch spread that triggers Utah’s stiffest penalties.
Investigators believe the ten sets of antlers represent the minimum number of deer the group illegally harvested. Additional photos suggest the actual count could be higher.
Under Utah’s newly strengthened anti-poaching laws, each felony conviction carries up to five years in prison and mandatory restitution of at least $12,000 per trophy deer. If all ten bucks qualify as trophies, restitution alone could exceed $120,000. A conviction would also strip the three of hunting privileges in Utah and forty-seven other states for life.
Wildlife officers described the case as one of the most blatant examples of serial poaching they have seen in Utah County in years and stressed that the arrests would never have happened without sharp-eyed citizens willing to speak up.
As of now, none of the defendants have entered pleas or listed attorneys in court records. And with their next scheduled court appearance set for early December, those ten sets of antlers that should still crown living bucks now sit in an evidence room in Provo, waiting for a judge and jury to decide the price of years spent hunting under the cover of darkness.
