MUNCY – Two convicted felons have been arrested on charges of spotlighting and killing nine deer as well as stealing two pigs from a farmer’s barn, shooting the animals to death and then butchering them, according to court records filed by the PA Game Commission.

Nick Andrew Kissinger, 20, of 68 Reed Road, Franklin Township, and Brett Richard Reynolds, 19, of 74 Ikes Drive, Brady Township, both face a total of 18 charges as a result of the incidents that occurred between early January and mid-February, Jonathan Michael Wyant, a wildlife conservation officer with the state Game Commission, said in an affidavit.

Wyant said Reynolds has admitted to investigators that he and Kissinger allegedly broke into Melvin Swisher’s pig barn in the 5700 block of Moreland Baptist Road, near Unityville, sometime between Feb. 2 and Feb 7.

The two stole two pigs, put them in the back of Kissinger’s truck and “drove about a mile away before shooting them with a rifle,” Reynolds told Wyant.

The pigs then were butchered and the meat was given to family members and friends, Wyant said.

Reynolds told Wyant that one night in early January, he and Kissinger “went up the road to Kissinger’s house where they spotlighted and shot four deer, which they put in Kissinger’s truck and then skinned and butchered.”

On another night during the first week in February, the two men drove to the area of Brouse Road in Clinton Township, where they spotlighted and shot five additional deer, which were taken to a house and butchered, Reynolds told Wyant.

Both Kissinger and Reynolds have been charged with burglary, felony trespassing, theft, receiving stolen property, convicted felon not to possess a firearm and 10 counts of taking or killing of big game.

Kissinger, convicted in late 2011 for breaking into Dixie’s Gunshop on North Railroad Street in Hughesville earlier that year, is on probation for five years.

Reynolds is on probation for felony trespassing, according to court records.

Both men have been arraigned before District Jon E. Kemp and jailed in the Lycoming County Prison; Kissinger in lieu of $100,000 bail and Reynolds in lieu of $50,000 bail.