Darrel Maguire | TPWD
Texas Game Wardens finally caught up with a 55-year-old man who went on an absolute tear, illegally dropping deer across three Hill Country Counties. After finding headless bodies and crossbow bolts lodged in suburban front yards, Texas officials have since slapped the egregious poacher with 74 criminal charges.
Darrel Maguire, of New Braunfels, is accused of poaching at least 13 deer from the fall of 2024 through late summer 2025 in Comal, Bexar, and Hays counties. According to officials, Maguire often used a crossbow to shoot deer from the comfort of his vehicle, often at night and from public roadways, before snatching the heads as trophies and leaving the carcasses to waste in residential neighborhoods.
A few of his trophies | TPWD
Texas Game Wardens started piecing it together in June of last year after finding carcass after carcass scattered across the Hill Country region. Fortunately for investigators, Maguire left less-than-subtle clues about his pattern of illegal kills, that included crossbow bolts embedded in lawns and porches all along the way. By the time they arrested him in September, they’d built a case that landed him with a laundry list of serious charges that included hunting without consent, night hunting, shooting from a vehicle, wasting game, and, for good measure, he was also nailed with possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.
It seemed as though, at one point, Maguire attempted to be on the straight and narrow. According to reports, he attempted to kick off his 2024 season legally, that is, until pesky bag limits got in the way. During the 2024 hunting season, Maguire allegedly took five additional white-tailed bucks over the limit in Bexar County, then kept right on going once things got fully illegal.
From June through September of 2025, authorities believe he illegally killed at least eight more bucks in residential areas of Comal and Hays counties.
Evidence | TPWD
Official Charges Filed Include:
Hunting without landowner consent (state jail felony)
Hunting white-tailed deer at night (Class A misdemeanor)
Hunting white-tailed deer from a vehicle or public roadway (Class A misdemeanor)
Failure to retrieve and keep white-tailed deer in edible condition (Class A misdemeanor)
Possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine, 5.86 grams) – 2nd degree felony
Possession of marijuana (Class B misdemeanor)
Multiple Class C Parks and Wildlife Code violations
As of right now, this case remains pending and Maguire has not yet been convicted of the charges.
