COURTLAND—An eight-time Courtland felon admitted to baiting deer and devising a trap to make it easier to kill one, said Sgt. J.T. Worrell, supervisor with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ district that serves Isle of Wight and Southampton counties.

Lewis Scarborough III, 39, was taken to Southampton County Jail after his arrest on Jan. 5 — the last day of the deer season, Worrell said.

Robert Mulder Jr., 50, of Suffolk also was charged.

Officers had learned a wooded area off Delaware Road had tubes attached to trees that were filled with corn. The area also had a 50-pound salt block and numerous piles of corn.

The officers arrived that morning before the hunters.

“We sat there and watched them come in and get in their tree stands,” Worrell said. “Once the sun came up and got light, we approached them.”

The officers learned Scarborough had a criminal record in North Carolina.

He is also accused of placing fishhooks in the ground underneath the corn and tying line to the hooks and trees.

“If the animal were to come in and feed on the corn, it would get tangled in the fishhooks, and wouldn’t be able to get away,” Worrell said.

Scarborough was charged with hunting over bait, illegally possessing guns by a felon for allegedly having a shotgun and .22-caliber rifle, not wearing blaze orange and hunting with an illegal device. Mulder was charged with hunting over bait.

Mulder will appear in Southampton County General District Court at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. Scarborough is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 12.