A Boulder County convicted felon who walked out on his halfway house sentence and was arrested in October on suspicion of poaching a black bear was sentenced Friday to prison.
Boulder County District Court Judge Gwyneth Whalen sentenced Craig Archer on Friday to six years in prison for walking away from his community corrections sentence and more than $1,000 in fines for poaching a bear and possessing marijuana.
Archer, 56, was given credit for the two years and 66 days he served in community corrections, meaning he has almost four years remaining on his new prison sentence.
Whalen cited Archer's "extensive criminal history," including theft and fraud convictions in 2005, when she handed down the sentence.
According to police reports, wildlife officers were called about a suspected poaching case Sept. 30 by one of Archer's neighbors, Steven Mciver, who noticed a trail of blood and then spotted Archer standing nearby. Mciver followed the trail and found the dead bear, according to the report. When he and officers followed the trail in the opposite direction, it led to Archer's home at 420 Colo. 7 Business Route near Allenspark, according to authorities.
When officers skinned the bear, they found it had been killed with a "carbon shafted arrow." Officers confronted Archer outside his home, and he told them that he used to be an archery hunter but hadn't done that in a "very long time," according to the report.
Authorities searched Archer's home in October and found evidence of illegal hunting and a large marijuana grow.
He pleaded guilty in January to charges including hunting big game without a license, illegal possession of wildlife and felony escape.
