Carter Allen McCullough and Jacob Daniel Dyas Jr. were set to appear before the Lee County District Court on April 7 for charges of wildlife abuse. The incident was originally logged on Auburn's YikYak on Feb. 28. In a series of images posted online, McCullough and Dyas Jr. were depicted throwing rocks at and taking pictures with a deceased Canada Goose, a federally protected species.
At the hearing scheduled for 9 a.m., McCullough appeared alongside his lawyer who requested Youthful Offender Status on behalf of his client. Under §15-19-1 of Alabama’s Code, the court has the discretion to direct that a defendant be arraigned as a youthful offender. According to Raines v. State, the youthful offender designation is meant to, “extricate people below 21 years of age from the harshness of criminal prosecution and conviction.” The youthful offender designation, further, allows for the sealing of the defendant’s records as though they were a juvenile and is not treated as a conviction of a crime.
Despite the objections of the State of Alabama, the Lee County district court judge, Samantha Copelan, ultimately granted the status to McCullough on all three of his charges. He was found guilty under the status and was sentenced to a six month suspended jail sentence and 12 months of unsupervised probation. The court also assessed McCullough with fines that totaled over $1,000 between his three charges.
Copelan firmly stated to McCullough that if he ran into any legal trouble, he would be jailed as a violation of his probation.
"I firmly believe in being very strict in my orders. So if you do not comply with the orders, meaning you get in trouble again for any reason, you will go to jail," Coplean said.
According to the prosecutor assigned to the case, Dyas Jr. did not request to be treated as a youthful offender despite being the same age as McCullough. Dyas has decided to take his case to trial, which is set to begin on May 19 at 9 a.m.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Jordan Wright, sophomore majoring in Law and Justice, has been with The Auburn Plainsman since January 2025. He is currently serving as the Opinion Editor.
