PATTEN – A South Portland man has been charged with killing deer at night after allegedly shooting three deer last month in the Patten woods. The carcasses were left where the animals were shot.

Jamie Dunbar, 33, will be arraigned in Millinocket District Court at a later date, according to Bill Livezey of the Maine Warden Service.

He reported Saturday that the investigation was launched after the Maine Warden Service received a complaint that someone had killed nine to 12 deer and left them in the area in mid-October.

“Patten is a hunting and fishing community, and this upset a lot of people,” Livezey said. “We started investigating and only found four deer. Some were just left there, and others had parts of them removed.”

The deer were killed between 10:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 16. During the investigation, wardens Livezey and Scott Martin executed search warrants at Dunbar’s South Portland home, as well as the home of 35-year-old Patten resident Stacy Anderson.

Anderson had nothing to do with the incident and won’t be charged with any crime, according to the wardens.

Dunbar, the wardens said, initially admitted killing only one of the deer, but denied shooting the others. The investigators, however, obtained additional evidence on Friday, prompting Dunbar to confess to killing two other deer. The killer of the fourth deer has yet to be determined, according to Livezey.

“Killing deer and leaving them is taboo even among hard-core poachers,” Livezey said Saturday. “It’s a very wrong thing to do. Mr. Dunbar admitted that he made some bad choices and said that he was sorry.”

If convicted, Dunbar will be fined $1,000 and will face three days in jail for each deer that he killed.