Wyoming News Briefs

Woman pleads guilty to charges in kidnap case

CASPER (WNE) — A woman involved in an August kidnapping that left one dead and one injured pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting robbery in Natrona County District Court on Friday.

Kayla Wollitz was initially charged with aggravated kidnapping and robbery, but those counts were dropped with her guilty plea to the amended charge Friday. She pleaded not guilty to the original charges in February. 

If the court accepts the plea agreement, she’ll be sentenced to two to four years at the Wyoming Women’s Center. 

Court documents state Wollitz helped Robert “Crook” Land find and take a woman he suspected of withholding money from methamphetamine sales from a Natrona County residence on Aug. 7. Wollitz then drove Land, the victim and Darron Monroe in her car to Land’s apartment. 

Later, when police arrived at the apartment, officers briefly exchanged fire with Land before shooting and killing him. The victim was also injured by bullet fragments, but recovered.

Monroe, who helped intimidate the victim according to an affidavit in the case, pleaded guilty to separate charges of aggravated robbery and conspiring to deliver methamphetamine. He was sentenced to time served for the drug charge and awaits sentencing for the other. 

The affidavit states Land put Wollitz in charge of holding the victim’s purse during the incident, and she admitted in court Friday to taking items from it. 

Police also reportedly found Wollitz had a syringe with trace amounts of methamphetamine at the time of the incident.

Historic Cheyenne mansion up for sale

CHEYENNE (WNE) — The Nagle Warren Mansion, an iconic Cheyenne architectural feature that was built 1888 and later transformed into a bed and breakfast, hit the housing market at $2.25 million earlier this year.

The historic, three-story home at 222 E. 17th St. is up for sale through #1 Properties, after late owner Jim Osterfoss shut down the B&B in late 2019.

Recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, the property boasts a 6,158-square-foot main building, complete with a library, conference rooms and ornate details in every corner of the home. A private garden and hot tub are tucked away from 17th Street behind the home, along with a 2,145-square-foot carriage house.

When he closed the B&B before passing away in January 2020, Osterfoss told the WTE, “I want to know somebody is going to take good care of it. It’s such a jewel for the city.”

As described in the Downtown Development Authority’s Historic Walking Tour, the building itself was born out of a competition between Erasmus Nagle and Francis E. Warren. Nagle, a wealthy businessman, bragged he had the “biggest and best house in Cheyenne” and that “nobody would build a better one.”

That was, until Warren constructed an elaborate home right next door.

To counter his competitor, Nagle constructed what is today the Nagle Warren Mansion, only to die two short years later. Warren, after grieving the loss of his wife, getting remarried and wanting a fresh start with his new partner, moved into the home, which ultimately led to the Nagle Warren Mansion title.

Tribes to receive millions under rescue act

RIVERTON (WNE) — The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes are slated to receive millions of dollars under the American Rescue Plan Act. 

In a May 10 letter to tribal leaders across the country, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced that $20 billion is being split among the 570 recognized American Indian tribes. 

Of that, $1 billion will be split evenly, allotting a base of $1,754,386 to each tribe in the country, including the local Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes of the Wind River Indian Reservation. 

After that, the remaining $19 billion is to be distributed on a membership basis, in which bigger tribes get more money, and on an employment basis using 2019 employment data to determine how many positions each tribe needs to fund and promote. 

Conservative estimates place the northern Arapaho tribe alone in position to receive about $80 million. 

The federal legislation stipulates that the funds must be used by 2024. 

All tribes must submit enrollment data by May 24, and employment data by June 7, to receive each round of payments. 

According to Treasury.gov, tribes may use their new funding to support public health expenditures, address negative economic impacts caused by COVID-19 issues, replace lost public sector revenue, provide premium pay for essential workers, and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.