SKOWHEGAN – A Somerset County man spent time in jail recently for putting an injured deer in his car’s trunk, keeping it there for more than eight hours and then depositing it at a butcher’s shop — barely alive.

At one point during that day, the man showed the doe to his girlfriend. When it couldn’t walk, he put it back in the trunk, District Attorney Evert Fowle said Thursday.

“There are some crimes which have an explanation, and there are some crimes that have mitigating factors to them,” Fowle said. “But this one is just disgusting.”

David Charrier, 52, of Detroit recently spent 10 days in the Somerset County Jail and will pay $1,500 in fines. He pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals, possessing a deer during a closed season and violating conditions of release.

On April 3, Charrier drove past a crash scene on Route 69 in Detroit. A vehicle had struck a deer, which lay in the road.

“There was a witness that was waiting for the wardens to come dispatch it because it seemed to be in great pain,” Fowle said. “Charrier came and scooped up the deer and took it.”

He kept the deer in his trunk during the day, Fowle said, and it was still alive eight hours later, when he took it to a butcher in Detroit.

The butcher contacted police, who told him to euthanize the doe.

The butcher then called the Maine Warden Service.

Charrier was sentenced in Somerset County District Court on Aug. 17 and released from jail on Aug. 25.

The charges are misdemeanors, with maximum jail time of 364 days.

Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Erin Rhoda can be contacted at 612-2368 or at:

erhoda@centralmaine.com