No. 21-2412 ___________________________

United States of America

Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Brett James Stimac

Defendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the District of Minnesota ____________

Submitted: February 18, 2022 Filed: July 25, 2022 ____________ Before LOKEN, COLLOTON, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges. ____________ SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Brett James Stimac, who is not an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, pled guilty to one count of wildlife trafficking, in violation of the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(1) and 3373(d)(2) (Count 1), and one count of trespass on Indian land, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1165 (Count 2), for entering the Red Lake Indian Reservation (the Reservation), removing the head of a bear that he had killed two days before, and transporting the bear’s head off the Reservation. As relevant to this appeal, at sentencing, the district court 1 applied a two-level increase to Stimac’s offense level pursuant to United States Sentencing Guidelines § 2Q2.1(b)(1)(B) based upon its findings that Stimac had a history of fish and wildlife violations and that the offense conduct involved violations of a number of laws over several days. The district court sentenced Stimac to 15 months imprisonment and 1 year supervised release. Stimac appeals his sentence, and having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

I.

On September 1, 2019, Stimac purchased a no-quota license issued by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which allowed him to hunt a bear in a specified area that did not include the Reservation and was not valid until September 2, 2019. Notwithstanding these restrictions, Stimac drove to the Reservation on September 1st with the specific intent to hunt a bear and shot an American black bear estimated to weigh between 300 and 700 pounds using a compound bow. At some point on September 1st, he sent a text message reading, “Time to go kill a bear.” Stimac responded to another text message on September 2nd, stating: “Sorry just seeing this. I was bear hunting and didn’t get home until 11:30 last night.” When asked where he was, he replied: “Up at red,” presumably meaning the Reservation. He also sent a message that day stating: “I shot one last night but lost it but there are a ton up there and I’m gonna shoot another one.” On September 2nd, Stimac drove Meghan Carlson, an acquaintance that Stimac met online, to three garbage dumps on the Reservation with the intent to shoot another bear. Stimac did not shoot another bear that day, but he located the carcass of the bear that he shot on September 1st. Stimac took photographs with the carcass and subsequently uploaded those photographs to Facebook with the caption: “Got it done last night with an absolute giant over 700 pounds.” Stimac returned to the Reservation again on September 3rd, sawed off the bear’s head with a yellow

1 The Honorable Susan Richard Nelson, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota. -2- hacksaw, removed the head from the Reservation, and took the head to a taxidermy shop.

On September 12, 2019, Stimac appeared on a hunting podcast and claimed that he killed the bear on September 2nd, contradicting his September 2nd Facebook post, which stated that he had killed the bear the night before. By this time, the September 2nd Facebook post had caught the attention of DN