Relic hunter receives 37 months in prison

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003 | 10:49 a.m.

A 45-year-old Oklahoma man was sentenced Monday to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay $102,364.40 in restitution for his part in illegally excavating Native American artifacts from protected public lands.

Bobbie Wilkie, a former Las Vegas resident, apologized before U.S. District Judge James Mahan for taking artifacts in connection with a case that federal investigators say involved a ring of looters who took more than 11,000 archaeological artifacts for their own benefit.

"This is all very confusing to me," Wilkie told Mahan during Monday's sentencing. "I went out with these guys and done some stuff out there that was wrong. I didn't realize how wrong it was.

"Sometimes we'd go out and go camping and sometimes we'd go out and go artifact hunting."

Wilkie's sentence could have been shortened for accepting responsibility, but Mahan said that Wilkie had not shown any contrition, remorse or regret in interviews with federal probation officers or during the sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Stanish said that Wilkie had told probation officers that he had done nothing more than take 30 to 50 arrowheads, despite his plea agreement to two counts of excavation and removal of archaeological resources and aiding and abetting.

More than 100 items, including basket fragments and sandals, were recovered from Wilkie's home, and evidence showed that Wilkie knew he was illegally looting artifacts, Stanish said.

"We have pictures of him carrying his shovel that he nicknamed 'Lucky,'th" Stanish said.

Stanish also said that investigators recovered ancient human remains during the course of the two-year investigation dubbed Operation Indian Rocks, but that because of a lack of cooperation by Wilkie and others the original locations of those remains is unknown.

Wilkie was the second defendant to be sentenced in connection with Operation Indian Rocks, which revealed that more than $500,000 in artifacts had been removed from sites on public lands.

According to court documents, arrowheads, ancient corncobs, hammer-stones, clay figurine fragments and other objects were taken from sites in Nevada, California, and other Western states.

Between December 1997 and December 2001 the defendants conspired to "unlawfully excavate, remove damage and otherwise alter and deface archaeological resources located on designated, federal public lands," according to court documents.

A total of 13 sites were damaged, including areas in Death Valley National Recreation Area, White Cliff Petroglyph Site and Kane Springs Wash, both about 100 miles north o Las Vegas.

All five defendants have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the case.

Kevin Peterson, a 43-year-old all-terrain vehicle tour guide in Overton, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 16. Bobbie Wilkie's former wife, Deanne Wilkie, 44, of Carson City, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 12, and David Peeler, 53, of Las Vegas, is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.

Frank Embrey, 54, of Henderson, was sentenced in August to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $86,196 in restitution.

Historic sites on public lands are protected by the 1906 Antiquities Act and the 1979 Archaeological Resource Protection Act, which make it illegal to destroy or excavate in these areas.

Operation Indian Rocks resulted in the creation of an inter-agency task force comprised of archeologists and law enforcement personnel from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management.