NOME, Alaska — A 12-year-old Brevig Mission boy has reached a plea deal with state prosecutors in the 2012 killings of musk oxen near his western Alaska village.
The boy and another boy were charged in January with multiple counts of wanton waste of big game after the deaths of seven musk oxen, KNOM reported. Authorities say the boys chased the animals with four-wheelers and shot them with rifles over several days.
The boys’ names have not been released because they are minors.
In a plea deal reached Friday, the 12-year-old agreed to forfeit all equipment used in the killings. That includes guns and four-wheelers.
He also will have to pay $3,000 in restitution, a fraction of the $21,000 that was originally calculated. Many of the financial penalties and other punishment the boy faced were ultimately reduced because of his age, Nome Assistant District Attorney Tom Jamgochian said.
The boy also will remain on probation for one year.
The other boy’s case remains open.
Brevig Mission is an Inupiat Eskimo community of about 450 people at Port Clarence, about 65 miles northwest of Nome. Residents of the village practice a subsistence lifestyle.
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