Wyoming News Briefs

Children, mother injured in fiery crash near Ralston

POWELL (WNE) — A woman and her two school-aged children suffered “extensive” injuries on Sunday evening after their vehicle crashed down an embankment and caught fire just east of Ralston. 

The 36-year-old woman, her nine-year-old son and her six-year-old daughter were all taken by ambulance to Powell Valley Hospital and then flown on to larger hospitals in neighboring states, said Trooper Kaycee Shroyer of the Wyoming Highway Patrol. 

Authorities were unsure of the occupants’ place of residence at press time, but Shroyer said it appeared the family members had recently been living in Billings. 

The crash occurred a little before 5:30 p.m. on the south side of U.S. Highway 14A, near its intersection with Road 14. Shortly before the incident, a citizen contacted law enforcement to report that the vehicle “was going 90 mph with no headlights” as it traveled west toward Ralston, Shroyer said. 

Not long after that, as the vehicle crossed the railroad tracks, it apparently went off the right-hand side of the highway, Shroyer said. 

The driver then overcorrected to the left, he said, which caused the vehicle “to go into a slide across all five lanes before it hit the curb and went airborne.” It flew about 200 feet through the air, landed, rolled and “again went airborne and clipped an electric wire before landing on its wheels and becoming fully engulfed,” the trooper said. 

The family members were eventually able to get out of the vehicle, Shroyer said, and the first Park County Sheriff’s deputy to arrive on scene helped pull the mother and son farther away from the flames. 

Members of the Powell Volunteer Fire Department extinguished the vehicle, which was a total loss. 

The incident remained under investigation on Monday, with Shroyer saying that alcohol “is being investigated as a contributing factor.”

AARP: Holiday shopping increasingly riddled by fraud

SHERIDAN — A new 2023 AARP Fraud Watch report highlights the ways criminals target consumers during the holiday season. According to the report, 80% of U.S. consumers say they have experienced some type of fraud this year, and reports ramp up over the holiday shopping season. 

Holiday shopping scams — from fake notifications about shipments to online ad scams and more — have increased from last year’s report.

Fraudsters often place fake ads online and across popular social media sites for steep discounts on the hottest items. 

Use of peer-to-peer payment services has increased significantly for a second year in a row. 

A large majority of respondents shared they do business via P2P apps — such as sending money to businesses they have no previous relationship with. In the unfortunate event of fraud, these apps provide little protection to affected consumers. 

Gift cards continue to be popular gift options, with 66% of those surveyed planning to purchase them this holiday season. However, 27% of consumers have experienced either giving or receiving a gift card with no value on it. 

“Criminals have old-school ways of manipulating cards hanging on retail racks and high-tech ways of searching online for cards with balances and draining them,” said Kathy Stokes, AARP director of fraud prevention programs. “It may be safest to purchase a gift card directly from the card issuer’s website.”

AARP offers the following reminders to avoid fraud: 

• Credit cards offer the most consumer protections of any payment method.

• Regularly upgrading the operating system on your device is important, as some updates are to patch known fraud vulnerabilities. 

• Don’t do a web search for a company’s customer support network because criminals buy ads impersonating those companies. 

• Check billing and credit card statements for customer service, use the number on the back of your credit cards or go directly to the company by typing in its web address.

Commission created to bring passenger rail back to Cheyenne

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Cheyenne hasn’t had passenger rail service since 1997. On Monday, the city announced it will be taking steps to change that through the creation of a formal commission that will work to connect Cheyenne to Denver and provide rail service across the Front Range.

The Cheyenne Passenger Rail Commission is tasked with leading the efforts to reintroduce passenger rail to the capital city. It is made up of eight government officials on the city, county and state levels, one Cheyenne Chamber leader and one Cheyenne citizen representative.

Talks of passenger rail in Colorado connecting Pueblo to Fort Collins via Denver are in more advanced stages. In the next year or two, Colorado residents will vote on whether they would support a tax to help fund this development. Cheyenne hopes to extend the northern terminal of the route to cross the state border into Wyoming.

“We are definitely tied by economy to the Front Range,” said Dale Steenbergen, president and CEO of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce and a member of the new commission, “and a lot of people go north and south across the border for employment and for business.”

In 2021, Colorado established the Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) District to oversee the development of the rail along the I-25 corridor between Wyoming and New Mexico. Steenbergen is the ex-officio member representing Wyoming on the board of FRPR.

The commission hopes that the rail service would not only make transportation easier for commuters, but also increase tourism and lighten the traffic along Interstate 25.

The Cheyenne Passenger Rail Commission will hold its first meeting on Friday, when members will be given a presentation by FRPR and have the opportunity to ask questions.

Casper man sentenced to 50-75 years for murder of his father

CASPER (WNE) — Vincent Hayes said his 70-year-old father, whom he murdered in their home in 2021, “was my family too,” as he pleaded on Wednesday for less time in prison.

Shortly after, he was sentenced to 50 to 75 years. 

A jury found Hayes guilty in August of the second-degree murder of William Johnson. Although he was not allowed to use “reason of mental insanity” as a defense, his reported dissociative identity disorder was highlighted throughout his trial and during his sentencing in Natrona County District Court. 

Hayes often used the word “us” to describe himself and his alternate personality “Reno,” as he addressed District Court Judge Catherine Wilking. 

Wyoming does not recognize the defense of diminished capacity as it relates to general intent crimes such as second-degree murder. 

State prosecutors asked for Hayes to serve 60 to 75 years at Wyoming State Penitentiary, pointing to his inability to take responsibility for his actions. 

“He still claims self-defense even though the jury didn’t find that persuasive,” a state prosecutor said in court Wednesday. “He still blames his alter-ego Reno.”

Kurt Infanger, Hayes’ public defender, said his client’s dissociative identity disorder was “valid in this case” and deemed the murder a “tragic event.” 

“It’s undeniable that mental illness was a contributing factor here...” Infanger said in court Wednesday; 

Hayes was found guilty of shooting his father several times on Nov. 12, 2021 after they got into a heated argument, which was said to be over William’s opinions about people with “non-traditional” lifestyles and people of color.

Sweetwater County will not pursue state shooting complex

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — Sweetwater County will no longer be gunning for a proposed $10 million state shooting complex.

Island Richards, county commissioner, attended a Recreation Facilities Committee meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 28. During the meeting, members of the committee discussed the state shooting sports facility and their request for a letter of interest from local communities.

Richards has been actively attending the state task force meetings as it tries to determine where the facility should be located.

“After a lot of consideration, my recommendation to our committee was to not continue to pursue the state complex,” said Richards during the Sweetwater County commission’s board meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 5. “I think the direction they have gone is simply unworkable for Sweetwater County, and I don’t think there’s any reasonable way that we could accommodate what they’re looking for.”

Richards told Rocket Miner that early on in the process, he was contacted by several people voicing their support for locating the complex in Sweetwater County.

“Everyone said they loved the idea, but that seemed to me to be the end of the support,” he said. “When I asked those same people if they would be interested in being a member of the task force, or an organizing committee, no one was interested.”

He further explained that as he had traveled the state attending task force meetings, he saw huge support coming from shooting sports organizations in other communities who were engaged in the process and doing whatever they could to be involved.

Senate File 169 allowed the state to form a taskforce that could spend up to three years planning out the details of a state shooting complex, including its size, scope and location. The bill also set aside $10 million for the complex. A decision regarding its location has yet to be made. 

Free park days set

JACKSON (WNE) — There are six days on the 2024 calendar when no one will have to pay a fee to enter a national park, and the first one is next month.

The fee-free days are Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Jr. Day; April 20, the first day of National Park Week; June 19, Juneteenth; Aug. 4, Great American Outdoors Day; Sept. 28, National Public Lands Day, and Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

The freebie for those days is only the entrance fee. The waiver does not cover amenity or user fees for camping, boat launches, transportation, special tours or other activities, a Park Service press release said.

For the days when people do have to pay entrance fees, the press release notes that the funds remain in the National Park Service and 80% to 100% stays in the park where collected.

“The revenue supports visitor services, including enhancing accessibility, restoring wildlife habitat and providing ranger programs, and adding or upgrading restrooms, campgrounds, trails and other facilities,” the press release said.

City receives $1.8 million for affordable housing investment

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Wyoming’s top elected officials gave Cheyenne a “big win” Thursday in its ongoing efforts to create more affordable housing in the capital city.

The State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) awarded $1.8 million to the city of Cheyenne to develop infrastructure on a plot of land where Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County intends to develop affordable housing units.

Habitat has owned the land for more than three years, after it was donated by Leaning Tree Homes, but has never had the funds to develop it.

“It’s literally a plot of land with no water, no sewer, no access, no roads, no nothing,” said city Grants Manager Renee Smith. “Habitat, they get donated land like this a lot, because I think it’s hard to develop them.”

The $1.8 million received will solely be used for developing this infrastructure on the land so that Habitat may begin building affordable homes on it.

The 9.93-acre plot is located on Storey Boulevard, west of Ridge Road. It is near North Cheyenne Community Park and Meadowlark Elementary School. Smith said making these affordable housing pockets in good areas is an important step toward making generational change within a community.

“This is a great win for not only the city and Habitat, but our community because we are suffering from a lack of affordable housing,” said Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County Executive Director Dan Dorsch.

Cody driver who injured bicyclist takes plea deal

POWELL (WNE) — Although she continues to assert that she didn’t commit a crime, a Cody driver who hit a young bicyclist and left the scene last year has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense. 

Jennifer Phillips crashed into an 11-year-old cyclist early on Sept. 21, 2022, near the intersection of Cody’s 16th Street and Stampede Avenue. The boy suffered a broken tibia, broken ribs, a punctured lung and other injuries in the collision, but Phillips kept driving, telling police that she never saw the child and didn’t realize she’d hit anyone. 

Cody police and Park County prosecutors, however, contended a reasonable person would have realized they’d been in an accident. 

The county attorney’s office charged Phillips with two misdemeanor counts: failing to stop following an accident involving injury and reckless endangering. 

Phillips was prepared to fight the charges at a bench trial before Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah last week, but right before the trial was set to begin, the parties struck a deal that had the support of the boy and his family. 

As part of the deal, Phillips agreed to offer what’s known as an Alford plea to the count of reckless endangering. It’s treated by the court just like a guilty plea, but it allows Phillips to continue to contend that she is innocent; she admitted only that the state had enough evidence to convict her of the crime. 

The deal calls for Darrah to choose the appropriate sentence for Phillips, but the parties have agreed it must include one year of unsupervised probation with restricted driving conditions. 

Phillips was arrested within a matter of hours after the incident when Cody police identified her as the driver through security camera footage. She was released on bond a couple days later. 

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 22.

UW releases findings on economic impact of agriculture in Wyoming

CHEYENNE (WNE) — A new publication by the University of Wyoming Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics reports that economic activity related to agricultural production contributed $2.526 billion to Wyoming’s economy in 2021.

This total includes direct farm-gate sales from 11 agricultural industries, as well as related business- to-business purchases and spending by agricultural households.

“Everyone recognizes that agriculture is big in Wyoming. Now we have a single publication that allows us to support our comments concerning the importance of ag in Wyoming with economic data,” said Eric Webster, director of the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station, in a news release.

Roger Coupal, a professor in the UW Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, and Amy Nagler, a research scientist in the department, co-authored the report, which presents both statewide and county-specific data.

Analysis was completed using IMPLAN economic impact modeling software and the most recent data available from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service and US Census Bureau.

Coupal and Nagler found that cattle, other livestock (including sheep and hogs) and hay production dominated Wyoming’s agricultural production values. In 2021, beef cattle ranching accounted for $1.031 billion in direct output — nearly 60% of total direct output from agricultural industries.

Overall, livestock production accounted for 77% of Wyoming’s direct economic output from agricultural industries; crop production made up the remaining 23%. In total, agricultural production contributed $1.712 billion to the state’s economy in direct farm-gate sales.

To view a free, downloadable copy of the publication, visit bit.ly/WYEconImpactAg2021.