Gunnery Sergeant Sentenced for Killing Deer on Goodfellow AFB

SAN ANGELO— A Goodfellow Air Force Base Gunnery Sergeant has been sentenced after shooting two deer on Goodfellow property without the consent of the United States Air Force or anyone legally authorized to act as the landowner.

Justin Wical, 36, of San Angelo, has taken a plea deal for Take Certain Wildlife Resources without Consent after hunting on Goodfellow Air Force Base.

On November 22, 2023, around 11:10 p.m., a Game Warden received information from an Environmental Program Manager at Goodfellow Air Force Base about possible illegal hunting on base. This individual put the Game Warden in contact with a Staff Sergeant who had received a call from a Gunnery Sergeant, identified as Justin Phillip Wical.

Wical claimed he had shot two deer earlier in the evening and needed to get rid of them to someone who would process them. He also said that she killed the two deer on the base with an air rifle.

Text messages were shared between Staff Sergeant, who is also a member of the military base’s deer harvesting program, and Wical, where he asked if anyone had any blinds reserved for Thanksgiving Day on base, which they were all sold out. Wical responded with, “Dag nabbit. No worries. So hypothetically speaking, if a doe were bagged, how would one enable say…a fella named K, to use it as proof he got a doe to immediately move on to bucks? Asking for a friend? For the next time he has a blind.”.

The response to this was, “Very well, if allegedly a fella sees something I’ll let ya know to put an arrow in an easy-to-use premade hole lol.”

In an earlier conversation, Wical walked into the suppression office talking about a Texas LLS air rifle that he had just purchases online. Shortly after that, he made a comment on how many deer were around his office and pointed to a stop on the map where they exactly were. After Wical shot the deer, he told the Staff Sergeant he got the deer at ‘the spot”. The Staff Sergeant assumed Wical meant the spot she pointed to on the map.

On November 24, 2023, at 1:09 p.m., two Game Wardens went to Wical’s residence to talk to him about his hunting activities. Wical claimed the two bucks were taken from the Twin Buttes public hunting lands with a 12-gauge shotgun. He had two heads taken to El Cazador Taxidermy and processed the deer at his friend’s house.

During this interview, Wical was asked if he had been on base that day which he replied, “yes”. He claimed to get stuff from work and later in the interview, he was asked if he had been on base after he had shot the two deer and if so, why. Wical took a long pause and said, “I’m not sure.”

About 10 minutes into the interview, Wical was asked if he had talked to anyone about hunting deer with an air rifle. Wical then passed out backwards and struck his head on the hood of his car. An ambulance was called and EMT’s said they did not find anything wrong with him.

The Game Warden obtained the phone number for Wical’s friend, who processed the deer. The friend agreed to speak with the Game Warden and stated that Wical was calling him while the Game Warden was on the phone with the friend.

The investigation went to El Cazador Taxidermy for evidence documentation and to put a hold on the two whitetail buck heads. Subsequently, the Game Wardens went to Wical’s friend’s house to see the deer meat. The friend had processed the deer “bone-in” whole quarters. Those were inspected for gunshot wounds.

None of the quarters had any characteristics consistent with a low velocity shotgun slug or buckshot, black powder rifle, or arrow projectile. The wound and tissue damage that was observed was more consistent with a smaller caliber firearm or air rifle of an unknown caliber.

Later that day, the Game Warden sent pictures to the Environmental Program Manager of the two buck heads and asked if he could tell from his game cameras on base if the deer heads looked familiar.

On November 27, 2023, the program manager texted back saying he may have found pictures of the 10-point buck that matched the one in the pictures sent to him. The game camera pictures were sent, and other game wardens and a supervisor compared the two and all agreed it was the same deer.

On December 1, 2023, security forces from Goodfellow AFB informed that on the date Wical claimed to have hunted at Twin Buttes, his car entered the base on two different occasions, the first at 7:25 p.m., and the next at 8:45 p.m. The second time, Wical had a passenger with him.

Then, on December 14, 2023, Wical’s friend wrote in a voluntary statement that Wical had asked for help processing the deer. The friend claimed that Wical called him on November 22, 2023, around 8:00 p.m. and asked for help, which his friend agreed. He told Wical to take the deer to his residence. At 8:14 p.m., Wical called saying that he had just harvested another deer but did not say where. About 15 minutes later, Wical arrived at his friend’s house with an 8-point buck.

At 8:38 p.m., Wical took his friend to the base for razor blades and zip ties. Here, Wical informed his friend that his other deer was laying in the bushes on the base. His friend helped him load up a 10-point buck into his car and returned home.

That same day, three individuals with Goodfellow AFB went to the Game Warden’s office and delivered a letter from their legal team wanting to pursue hunting without landowner consent charges.

Wical was arrested on January 8, 2024, and released on January 9, 2024, on $5,000 bond. In exchange for the guilty plea, Wical was sentenced to two-year deferred adjudication probation. He has already paid his $1,410 in restitution.