Wyoming News Briefs

Man sentenced to prison in fatal DUI wreck

RIVERTON (WNE) — Winter Hawk Goodman, who killed three people while driving drunk in 2016, was sentenced Friday to 12 years imprisonment.

After a four-day federal trial, Goodman was in convicted in federal court of involuntary homicide in October for the deaths of Lyle Black, Sarah Black and William C’Bearing.

In a departure from the norm, the federal trial took place in Lander. Typically such trials are conducted either in Casper or Cheyenne.

At Goodman’s sentencing, the Blacks’ three daughters all gave victim impacts statements.

Goodman’s prison term will be followed by three years supervised probation.

Judge Scott Skavdahl recommended the convict be placed in “a Bureau of Prisons facility as close to his family as possible, and that every accommodation possible be made to provide the defendant with substance abuse treatment and to assist the defendant in obtaining his GED.”

Goodman was convicted for driving drunk during the two-vehicle wreck at the intersection of Left Hand Ditch Road and 17 Mile Road on Nov. 29, 2016.

An hour after the crash, Goodman’s blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.356, more than four times Wyoming’s legal limit for impaired driving of .08

Goodman also was convicted of assault for the injuries that resulted to another passenger, Keina Duran.

Duran was pregnant at the time and gave birth prematurely six days after the wreck.

The baby suffered a brain hemorrhage, which Duran’s doctor said likely resulted from the crash.

Because the wreck took place on the reservation, Goodman was tried in federal court.

Lawmaker aims to move away from time changes

CHEYENNE (WNE) — A Wyoming lawmaker will once again take up his battle against daylight saving time when the Legislature convenes in January. 

Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, is sponsoring a bill for the upcoming general session to take the state out of the Uniform Time Act, which created standard and daylight saving time. For the fourth time in as many years, Laursen will try to make Wyoming the third state in the country to no longer require its residents to switch up their clocks twice a year.

Arizona and Hawaii both ditched daylight saving time in the late 1960s after the system was created. 

“The main reason to bring it back is I don’t like changing the clock,” Laursen said. “I think it’s tough on a lot of people, especially the elderly and the younger people. I know it affects me for a couple of weeks after we make the switch.”

A state can ask the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to opt out of daylight saving time if it’s situated within one time zone and the entire state would take part in the switch. 

Laursen’s bill would direct Wyoming to apply for being removed from daylight saving time if three contiguous states to Wyoming also apply to be taken out of the current system. The bill would move Wyoming into the Central Time Zone, and then create a new designation called Mountain Daylight Saving Time. 

That would keep Wyoming in its current daylight saving time throughout the year. 

Laursen said that made sense because the current system keeps people in daylight saving time for around eight months. 

Flu prompts visiting restrictions at Campbell Co. institutions

GILLETTE (WNE) — Due to an increase in flu activity, Campbell County Health has initiated visiting restrictions at the Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center and in Campbell County Memorial Hospital’s maternal child department, according to a CCH press release.

At the Legacy, children younger than 12 who are not related to a resident are prohibited from visiting. Child relatives who visit must wear a mask and must be showing no signs of illness.

In the maternal child department, visiting is restricted to a mother’s significant other and two additional people at any one time. Children younger than 12 are not permitted except for a newborn’s siblings, who must first be screened for flu symptoms by a maternal child nurse.

Masks and hand sanitizing stations are located in CCH buildings, and all visitors are encouraged to use them before visiting anyone, the press release said. Those who feel ill or have symptoms of the flu, such as fever or cough, should not visit.

Patients who come to CCH with flu symptoms should wear a mask.

CCH implements visiting restrictions if it sees an increase in positive influenza tests in the hospital lab. CCH regularly monitors influenza cases and adapts restrictions accordingly. The hospital implements flu restrictions nearly every year, but this is the earliest they’ve been implemented in the last few years.

Flu activity across Wyoming has increased in December but not enough to declare that the flu season has officially begun, according to the state Department of Health.

Woman charged after allegedly stabbing boyfriend

LARAMIE (WNE) — A Laramie woman has been charged with second-degree attempted murder after stabbing her boyfriend on Christmas Eve.

The victim was taken to Ivinson Memorial Hospital and given stitches for his wounds, which all were sustained on his right arm.

Fifty-year-old Terry Goodman was also charged with aggravated assault and battery and domestic battery.

Amber Ferguson, an officer at the Laramie Police Department, was dispatched to the Motel 8 on Boswell Drive shortly after 9 p.m. on Monday after the incident.

Goodman acknowledged stabbing her boyfriend with a butcher knife because “he made her mad and always talked over her,” according to Ferguson’s affidavit.

“He called the police like a (obscenity) instead of letting me leave,” Goodman told the officer.

When Goodman was taken to the Albany County jail, she said the couple had been drinking and arguing throughout the evening.

Goodman said her boyfriend was upset she had visited her children for Christmas while he was not able to spend the holiday with his son and didn’t have money for Christmas gifts.

Her boyfriend then offered to pay Goodman $200 if she’d leave the motel.

As he smoked a cigarette, Goodman grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed him three times in his right arm.

Goodman said the stabbing was not committed in self-defense. She said her boyfriend had cancer and “claimed to be dying.”

“She wanted to help him end it,” Ferguson’s affidavit states.

A person convicted of attempted second-degree murder can be sentenced to up to 20 years imprisonment.

Judge appoints new Campbell commissioner

GILLETTE (WNE) — Del Shelstad has been selected to fill a vacancy on the Campbell County Commission.

Shelstad is the president of Dust Control Inc. and the chairman of the Joint Powers Fire Board, which oversees the Fire Department on behalf of Campbell County, Gillette and Wright.

District Judge Michael N. “Nick” Deegan announced his selection Thursday in a written statement.

Last week, Deegan interviewed six of the 13 who applied to District Court earlier this month after the Campbell County Commission failed to select one of the three finalists put forward by the Campbell County Republican Party Central Committee.

“The court wishes to express its appreciation, on behalf of the judiciary and the public, to the six finalists, all fine candidates, for taking the time to present themselves in a public forum for interview by the court,” Deegan wrote in his statement. “Arriving at a decision has been difficult because each candidate could serve on the Board and add value to its deliberations.”

The commission seat opened when Clark Kissack resigned for unspecified reasons at the end of October. Whoever is selected will serve the final two years of Kissack’s term.

Four missing snowmobilers rescued in Carbon County

LARAMIE (WNE) — Albany County Search and Rescue worked over the Christmas holiday to successfully locate four snowmobile riders reported overdue or missing in the Snowy Range Mountains west of Laramie. The four riders were found Tuesday by a search helicopter, according to an Albany County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Although a car was found at the Green Rock parking area in Medicine Bow National Forest, the helicopter found the missing riders “deep into Carbon County” by Deep Creek, appearing to be in good health with a fire, the news release said.

Since the riders were found in Carbon County, Albany County transferred control of the search efforts to Carbon County at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the news release added. The Boomerang reached out to the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office for comment but did not receive any before deadline Wednesday.

Helicopters were unable to get to the riders on Tuesday evening due to weather conditions, and the difficult terrain also prevented snowmobile rescue efforts. The rescue operation began again in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Police scanners on Wednesday indicated the snowmobiles might have had trouble getting into and out of the area where the riders were located, so rescue crews were in the process of snowshoeing out with the rescued riders.

Visiting from South Dakota, the snowmobile riders were reported overdue and potentially missing after failing to come back to checkout from the Albany Lodge. The news release added the Albany Lodge reported the missing riders to the Albany County Sheriff’s Office at approximately 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Lovell shooting suspect arraigned on murder charge

LOVELL (WNE) — Donald Joe Crouse, the suspect in the killing his ex-wife Carol Jean Barnes, was arraigned in district court on Tuesday, Dec. 18.

Crouse appeared before Judge Bobbi Overfield via Skype

from the Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston. His attorney, Timothy Blatt, appeared in person.

Crouse is charged with the first-degree murder of Barnes.

The crime happened on Jan. 4 when Lovell Police discovered her body. Her son had contacted the police after receiving a text message from her, saying she was in distress. He is alleged to have kept a detailed log in which he planned Barnes’ murder.

Crouse was later captured in Mills.

Crouse has been in the Wyoming State Hospital and was recently deemed competent to be arraigned.

Crouse pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness.

He could face the death penalty if convicted. Big Horn County Attorney Marcia Bean told the court that she is not waiving the death penalty.

Bean requested a trial that will last two to three weeks. This will include the penalty phase where, if convicted, the jury will determine if Crouse will be sentenced to death. The last inmate to be executed in the state was Mark Hopkinson in 1992. The last man placed on death row, Dale Wayne Eaton, had his sentence overturned by a federal judge in 2014. It was determined at the arraignment that Crouse will remain at the state hospital.