Hunter gets jail, fine for transporting deer prize. He tried to make it look like buck was shot in Michigan Last Updated: March 10, 2000 Madison - A professional Elvis impersonator who poached a trophy buck in Columbia County and attempted to make it appear he legally killed the deer in Michigan was snared by the use of isotope analysis on wildlife. Clyde H. Masten III, 24, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Court Magistrate Stephen Crocker to a month in jail, fined $2,000 and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service for unlawfully transporting wildlife across state lines. Crocker delayed Masten's date to report to jail until April 17 to allow him to make a scheduled appearance as an Elvis Presley impersonator in Branson, Mo. Masten, formerly of Portage, could not legally hunt in Wisconsin after accumulating 27 hunting citations in 1996. However, the avid hunter shot an 11-point buck after dark with a .22-caliber rifle on Oct. 28, 1996, said Wisconsin Conservation Warden John Welke. Masten, who could legally hunt in Michigan, drove with another man and the deer the next day to Watersmeet, Mich., where they shot a videotape to make it appear the deer had been killed there, said Welke. The men then tagged the deer with a Michigan tag and drove back to Portage, where Masten had the head of the deer mounted. Welke, who had cited Masten before for hunting violations, became suspicious after learning from Masten's accomplice that Masten had a buck with a Michigan tag. Masten's friend later told Welke the deer had been illegally shot, but Masten denied it and even signed a sworn statement that he killed the deer in Michigan. In late 1998, Welke turned the case over to U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent Edward Spoon, who went to the geology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to get scientific support for the suspicion that Masten's deer was from Wisconsin. Brian Beard, a research scientist, tested the seized deer's antlers for an isotope of strontium, a trace element found in minerals, rocks, bones and teeth. Because the age difference between some rocks found in the Upper Peninsula and rocks in Columbia County, the levels of strontium are vastly different in the two locations, Beard said. The characteristics of strontium provide a geographic fingerprint of where the deer lived, he said. "We knew the strontium levels in deer from the Upper Peninsula and from deer near Portage. When we tested the deer in question, it was an identical match to the deer from Portage," Beard said. Beard, who has used isotope analysis to identify commingled remains of servicemen shipped home from Vietnam, said the procedure has never been used in a criminal proceeding. Faced with the scientific evidence, Masten agreed to a plea bargain in January that reduced charges from a felony to a misdemeanor. Masten, a used-car salesman in Madison, said he has sworn off hunting, has sold the 20 guns he once owned and gave away the many animal head mounts he had displayed in his home. "I've shot plenty of deer. I used to be obsessed with hunting, but now I've turned my hunting obsession into singing, and I'm rated No. 2 in the world as a singing Elvis," Masten said during a long statement to the court. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on March 11, 2000.