Wyoming Supreme Court

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court's sentence, holding that presentence confinement credit is only owed for days the defendant was detained solely because of a financial inability to post bond, not for time served due to probation revocation, resulting in a credit of 64 days.

The court affirmed Walker’s convictions, holding that the district court properly excluded most evidence concerning his wife’s conduct because it lacked a sufficient connection to Walker’s intent and risked confusing the jury, while allowing adequate impeachment and defense evidence.

The Wyoming Supreme Court granted appointed appellate counsel's motion to withdraw after reviewing the Anders brief and the record and after Guerriero failed to file a pro se brief.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed Todd’s conviction for attempted sexual exploitation of a child, holding that the evidence supported a finding that he took a substantial step toward enticing the child to engage in masturbation, which is explicit sexual conduct under the statute.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court's order entered after a limited remand, which found that Paul Sorum made a personal oral guarantee to pay Mike Sikorski for the Clean Crude storage-tank leases with personal funds if the company did not pay, breached that guarantee, and reaffirmed the $114,537.56…

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court's award of primary physical custody to Mother after her relocation from Cody, Wyoming to Colorado. Although both parents were found fit and competent caregivers, the court held the district court acted within its discretion because Mother's unilateral move rendered…

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court's entry of default judgment against William Lopez in favor of Samantha Ritter following a 2015 car accident. The court held that Lopez waived his due process challenge to service at a known vacant address by failing to raise it below, but addressed the…

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Rene Irisrose Daniels's W.R.A.P. 21 motion for a new trial, which alleged trial counsel was ineffective for failing to seek suppression of her statements to law enforcement, failing to object to a detective's interview questions about non-existent eyewitnesses, failing…

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed a district court order holding Guy Morrison III in civil contempt for frustrating the parties' court-ordered filing of a joint 2021 federal tax return.

The court affirmed the termination of both parents’ parental rights to the three children. It held that the Department’s procedural shortcomings did not improperly affect Father’s fundamental parental rights, and Father abandoned any challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence under the independent statutory ground.

The Supreme Court of Wyoming affirmed the denial of the Estate's claims against Katya Hutton concerning alleged undisclosed or misused condominium rental income. It held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by declining to impose Rule 37 sanctions because the Estate had not established a discovery…

The court held that the district court violated a clear rule of law by determining the willfulness of probation violations during the adjudicatory phase rather than the dispositional phase.

The court affirmed the denial of Campbell's motion to suppress, holding that the affidavit supporting the initial warrant established probable cause to search his residence for evidence related to a stolen U-Haul.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s decision upholding Albany County’s 2023 Aquifer Protection Overlay Zone amendments, including the 35-acre minimum lot size.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the denial of both parties’ motions to enforce a purported global settlement agreement. It held that the parties lacked mutual assent on essential terms governing ditch access and the visual-storage restriction, leaving the agreement too indefinite to enforce.

The court held that Allen’s guilty plea did not waive his challenge to a pretrial order requiring him to liquidate personal property to maintain appointed counsel because the challenge did not concern his guilt, conviction, or plea voluntariness.

The court held that the appeal was technically moot because the Wyoming Boys’ School purged its contempt and the juvenile was later adjudicated delinquent, but reviewed the issues under all three recognized mootness exceptions.

The Wyoming Supreme Court summarily affirmed the divorce decree because Father’s opening and reply briefs lacked cogent legal argument and pertinent authority. The Court therefore did not reach the merits of the custody, visitation, or marital-debt issues.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed Mr. Griggs's convictions and life-without-parole sentence for sexually abusing two children. It upheld the children's competency findings, rejected the ineffective-assistance, speedy-trial, continuance, and character-evidence claims, and concluded that although some hearsay was…

The court held that a juvenile's lengthy consecutive sentences, which effectively required him to spend the rest of his life in prison, triggered the Eighth Amendment protections governing juvenile life-without-parole sentences.

A jury convicted Randall Schreibvogel of two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of robbery, and the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed. The court held that the State had standing to move to quash the defendant's subpoena duces tecum for the victim's financial records and that the district court did not…

The court held that the net profits interest continued to burden the leases identified in the governing contract after the Pinedale Unit contracted and terminated, and that plaintiffs supplied sufficient notice of their claimed ownership to trigger payment beginning in March 2006.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed Bush's second-degree murder conviction, holding that the daughter's statements to treating professionals were admissible for diagnosis and treatment and did not violate confrontation rights because she testified and could be cross-examined.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed judgments quieting title to gas rights, including coalbed methane, in the appellees, holding that reservations of "oil rights" in 1940s Campbell County warranty deeds did not include gas because appellants failed to meet their burden of proving a trade usage of the term that embraced…

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for Shoshone First Bank on claims arising from the suicide of teller Christina Proefrock hours after the bank accused her of stealing $1,200 in missing funds.

The court reversed the denial of O’Boyle’s suppression motion, holding that the trooper’s extensive questioning during a speeding stop unreasonably expanded the detention under both the Wyoming Constitution and the Fourth Amendment.

The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed a district court judgment finding that the Jensens had acquired an irrevocable license to use a road crossing the Harbers' and Loziers' property for ranch access.

The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed Alvin Hannon's convictions for sexual assault on two grounds: the trial court's prohibition of cross-examination of the victim about his three-month delay in reporting until being questioned about his own sexual improprieties violated Hannon's Sixth Amendment confrontation right and…

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court's order denying Wells Fargo's motion to dismiss and granting Wells Fargo summary judgment on all ten of the Birts' causes of action arising from a failed home construction loan application.

The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed Dysthe’s conviction for delivery of cocaine and remanded for a new trial. It held that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding defense witnesses relevant to impeaching the State’s principal witness and by restricting cross-examination concerning the foundation for another…

The court held that the traffic stop was initially lawful because the officer observed speeding, but that the subsequent pat-down and continued detention violated the Fourth Amendment.

The court affirmed Gleason’s convictions, holding that the trial court properly admitted uncharged misconduct evidence for permissible purposes after conducting the required relevance and prejudice analysis.

The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed a judgment on the pleadings dismissing a wrongful death action that had been filed against a tortfeasor's estate one day before the two-year statutory period expired but before the personal representative rejected the underlying probate claim. Construing Wyo. Stat. Ann.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed Wilks's second-degree murder conviction and seventy-years-to-life sentence. It held that several evidentiary and prosecutorial errors occurred, including admission of irrelevant character evidence and limited victim-impact material, but found no reasonable possibility that any error…

The court affirmed the denial of Beri Newman's workers' compensation benefits because substantial evidence supported the finding that her later headaches and double vision were not caused by her earlier workplace injury.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed Juan Burton's conviction for taking indecent liberties with a child. The court held that the prosecutor's closing argument contained at most one improper remark, which was cured by a sustained objection and a curative instruction the jury was presumed to follow, and that the…

The court affirmed Lancaster's convictions, holding that admission of the videotaped crime reenactment was erroneous but harmless, and that the alleged prosecutorial misconduct either did not occur or did not prejudice him.

The court held that summary judgment was improperly granted on Metz's breach-of-contract claim because the record supported an inference that the parties' oral distributorship agreement could be terminated only for cause.

The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed and remanded a divorce decree that split custody of the couple's six children along gender lines — the two girls to the mother and the four boys to the father — because the trial court offered no explanation for the arrangement and the record lacked evidence supporting it.

In consolidated appeals arising from a road-reconstruction subcontract, the Wyoming Supreme Court explicitly adopted § 205 of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts and held that parties to a commercial contract may bring a claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing based on a contract…