Story Published:
Feb 4, 2009 at 1:57 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Feb 4, 2009 at 1:57 PM CDT
SPRINGFIELD -- A man who used to live in Shell Knob got a one-year federal prison sentence this week for harvesting paddlefish eggs from illegal nets at Table Rock Lake. Investigators said Thomas Nix Jr. harvested the eggs and sold the caviar in Tennessee.
Nix is 39 and now lives in Memphis, Tenn. A judge sentenced him on Monday to one year and one day in federal prison without chance of parole. The judge also ordered Nix to pay about $30,000 in restitution to
the Missouri Department of Conservation. Nix also has to forfeit to the government a 20-foot boat and other equipment used in the offense.
Nix pleaded guilty for participating in the conspiracy to engage in illegal commercial fishing from December 2007 to Feb. 17, 2008.
