Alabama man sentenced for taking Gila Monsters

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama man has been sentenced for the illegal possession, transportation and sale of protected reptiles he captured in Arizona.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn in Birmingham sentenced 43-year-old David Langella of Scottsboro to three years of probation for violating a federal law that prohibits the transportation and sale of wildlife taken in violation of state, federal or Indian tribal law.

Langella was accused of traveling to Arizona to capture reptiles like Gila Monsters and ridge-nosed rattlesnakes and taking them back to Alabama for his own collection. The ridge-nosed rattlesnake is the state reptile of Arizona.

A Gila Monster is a large poisonous lizard native to the southwest United States and northwest Mexico.

Blackburn on Tuesday ordered Langella to spend the first four months of probation under home confinement.

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