Bear Shooting Suspect Rejects Offer
By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — A man who admitted to killing one of Florida’s most endangered species late last year has decided to ignore an offer from state attorneys.

Defense attorneys for Norman Hatch, 64, 655 Highlands Lakes Drive, said their client is turning down an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter prison sentence.

Hatch will instead take his chances with a jury trial.

Defense attorney Richard Pipkin told 10th Judicial Circuit Judge Peter Estrada Tuesday that his client doesn’t deny shooting a Florida black bear last November.

Pipkin said his client’s case will rest upon whether Hatch’s shooting and killing of the bear was an act of self-defense.

“Our client wants to go to trial in April if at all possible,” Pipkin said to Estrada.

State attorneys told Estrada that Hatch has already refused their offer to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser punishment.

Shooting a Florida black bear is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

FWC officials said they denied Hatch’s initial request for permission to shoot the bear after he called them. But they said Hatch shot the bear with his 45 magnum revolver shortly afterward anyway.

FWC officials said the bear wasn’t threatening Hatch in any way.

One Highlands Park Estates resident told Highlands Today before last year’s shooting that she and her family had seen several bears in her neighborhood. She later said one bear she photographed might have been the one who was shot.

She said the bear wasn’t a nuisance to them, although it once tried running off with her family’s garbage.

Hatch bonded out of jail on $1,000 bond shortly after his arrest.

Estrada said jury trial selection in Hatch’s case will begin April 9.

Meanwhile, people encountering bears are encouraged to call fish and wildlife at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922) to request help.