Three of the eight Point Hope men originally charged with wasting meat from between seven and nine caribou they hunted in 2008 were sentenced Thursday to fines and community service.

The sentencings, which resulted from plea deals the men took in recent months, came during a break in this week's trials of three other Point Hope men who were also implicated in wasting meat during the summer 2008 hunt. Charges against an eighth man were dropped in December, as the state was unable to connect that hunter to any shooting or to a specific dead animal.

Alaska Superior Court Judge Richard Erlich sentenced Lazarus Killigvuk, Randy Oktollik, and Koomalook Stone in a makeshift courtroom at Point Hope's community center. A fourth hunter to take a plea deal -- Brett Oktollik -- is expected to be sentenced later in the day. The sentencings included fines ranging from $850 to $2,200 and 50 to 120 hours of community service, including hunting education and outreach.

In handing down the sentences, Erlich told state prosecutors he was upset with the glaring difference in circumstances between the group of hunters who took plea deals and those on trial this week. The men on trial now -- Aqquilluk Hank, Chester Koonuk, and Roy Miller, Jr. -- are exposing themselves to risks, and opening up publicly their perceptions of the world.

Erlich also took issue with the component of the plea deals that call for the men to perform hunter education in cooperation with state troopers as community outreach. The men should not, he told prosecutors, be held up as experts in the community.

A state prosecutor countered that the punishments are appropriate and the education component will help address the problem with the belief among some Alaska Native communities that it's legal under state game laws to not salvage meat from animals believed to be sick, and also tackle the perception that the state has failed to adequately educated hunters about the laws they are expected to follow.

Killigvuk, who stopped hunting after he was charged in the caribou waste case, said after his sentencing that he will likely resume after he pays his $850 fine and completes 50 hours of community service.

Killigvuk told investigators that of the animals left behind, one was too wounded to salvage, and two others were taken only to discover there was not room for more weight.

"I thought we had enough room. The first we shot was shot too much, and when we shot the other two we had too much already, too many eggs," he said leaving the courtroom after today's hearing. He added, "I will think about the things we did and do the right thing for my people, and teach my people to do the right thing. I am sorry, for the community, that this happened."

A lawyer for Randy Oktollik, who was sentenced pay $850 and serve 50 hours community service, said the only reason his client took a deal was that he didn't have enough money to take his case to trial. Oktollik and his attorney maintain caribou meat that looks diseased shouldn't be salvaged.

"No reasonable person who shoots a caribou, who sees that it has this disease -- you just have to be insane to take it into your village or touch it. Medical personnel when they encounter this were wearing hazmat suits," Oktollik's attorney, Allan Dayan, told the court via cell phone from Anchorage.

Oktollik told the judge that he was just trying to protect his family, and that he was sorry.

Koomalook Stone, who was still in high school when troopers started their investigation, received the most severe penalty -- a $2,200 fine and 120 hours of community service. Although he aided troopers by leading them back to the scene of some of the kill sites, prosecutors explained he was the one defendant to whom they were able to directly connect most of the waste.