Northern Minnesota man charged with killing neighbor’s dog amidst illegal hunting investigation

A northern Minnesota man is charged with animal cruelty and torture in the shooting death of a neighbor’s dog.

Investigators with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources made the discovery while investigating 26-year-old Brandon Mutchler for illegal hunting.

Court documents say searches also turned up evidence that Mutchler — along with his two brothers, Matthew and Nicholas, and their dad, Thomas — had been in possession of a wolf, bear and multiple deer over the harvest limit at some point over the last three years.

During an incident where a Minnesota DNR officer was reviewing Brandon Mutchler’s hunting license status in November 2023, he recalled that the DNR received a tip regarding a possible deer over-limit violation committed by Brandon Mutchler in 2022.

In a previous incident, it was discovered that Brandon Mutchler had submitted deer antlers for two different deer mounts and at two different taxidermists with his 2022 Minnesota deer license information.

In February 2024, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Brandon Mutchler’s home in Hines, where they found several packages of deer meat and a plastic bag of bear claws without any license information or markings on the bag.

On the same day, authorities executed a search warrant at Brandon Mutchler’s second home in Bemidji. There, they found Brandon Mutchler, who admitted to shooting two deer in 2022, not tagging either deer and bringing both deer to a taxidermist.

During this search, law enforcement also found notebook entries from 2022 in which the writer admitted to baiting for bear using an old junk van and shooting a year-and-a-half-old doe. In a report, it was detailed that Brandon Mutchler didn’t have a bear license in 2022.

A search warrant was also executed on Brandon Mutchler’s phone, which found multiple pictures of him, his brothers and father harvesting and possessing multiple deer over-limit from 2021-2023, harvesting and possessing a bear in 2021 and 2022 and harvesting and possessing a timberwolf in 2023.

In August 2023, a deputy with the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office took a report of a pet dog shot on the owner’s property. The owners of the dog were identified as Daniel and Jessica Juelson.

After arriving on scene, the deputy found a large tan and black male German shepard named Sysco that had been shot in the shoulder.

The deputy then spoke with someone who had been watching the dogs, who said they woke up on Aug. 27 and found Sysco dead.

Brandon Mutchler was identified as a possible suspect due to his home’s proximity to the scene but denied shooting the dog during questioning.

Two days later, the Juelsons notified officials they had found evidence near the dog kennel and the deputy returned to find six .22 caliber shell casings.

In another search of Brandon Mutchler’s phone, authorities found multiple searches on the internet relating to the shooting of the dog and other illegal hunting issues from 2021-2023.

In total, Brandon Mutchler was charged with one count each of animal torture, animal cruelty, transporting illegal big game, deer over-limit and illegally possessing a protected wild animal. He was also charged with two counts of gross over-limits of wild animals and seven counts of failure to register big game.

Thomas and Matthew Mutchler were both charged with one count each of failure to register big game and illegally possessing a protected wild animal. Nicholas Mutchler was charged with one count of failure to register big game.