Wyoming News Briefs

Kidnapped man lands up to 14 years in prison

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette man who pleaded guilty to the second-degree sexual abuse of a minor received has been sentenced to ten to 14 years in prison. 

Zackery Minard, 22, was found in bed with a 14-year-old girl by the girl’s mother, who called her boyfriend, Timothy James Ott.

Ott, 30, and a friend beat up Minard, put him in a car trunk and drove him out of town, eventually abandoning him on a country road. The temperature outside was about 35 degrees. 

According to Minard, Ott told him to walk back to town and think about what he had done, according to court documents.

A sheriff’s deputy found Minard, who appeared to have been beaten up, after a passerby reported seeing a man looking disheveled and without shoes in the country east of Gillette. An ambulance took Minard to the hospital where he was treated for a broken nose. 

Ott pleaded guilty in April to kidnapping and felony meth possession, with the kidnapping charge changed to clarify that he had voluntarily released Minard, according to court documents.

Prosecutors have agreed in a plea deal to recommend nine to ten years for the kidnapping charge. Ott’s sentencing is July 19.

While talking to police, Ott was remorseful and said he had been impulsive and taken things too far, according to court documents.

The meth charge came after police were called Dec. 11 to Second Chance Ministries, where Ott had been staying. While workers cleared out his belongings, they found paraphernalia with trace amounts of meth, according to court documents.

SUV crashes into geyser

CODY (WNE) — All five occupants escaped their vehicle after it left a road and plunged into hot, acidic water in Yellowstone National Park on Thursday morning, July 11.

They escaped the vehicle on their own, and each one went by ambulance to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The car had gone off the road “inadvertently,” according to the park.

The incident occurred at a thermal feature called Semi-Centennial Geyser located near Roaring Mountain between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Junction. The vehicle was fully submerged in about nine feet of water.

The geyser has acidic and hot surface water temperatures ranging around 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

The next day, law enforcement rangers temporarily closed both lanes of the road near the accident in order to safely lift the car out of the thermal feature. The road reopened after about two hours. 

The incident is under investigation.

Woman arrested after refusing to stop lying in the street

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 19-year-old woman was arrested Sunday afternoon for interference and jaywalking after she was found lying in the middle of the road.

Police had approached her earlier that day, but she refused to speak with them and walked away.

Later in the day, police received numerous calls reporting that she was lying in the middle of the overpass on South Burma Avenue, Police Deputy Chief Brent Wasson said.

Officers tried to remove her from the road, but she refused to cooperate, Wasson said. She was warned that she would be ticketed if she did not move, and she told officers that she would refuse to show up to court if they ticketed her.

Officers arrested her in order to remove her from the road. She resisted arrest, and was able to slip her hands out of the handcuffs several times throughout the arrest, Wasson said.

She was eventually arrested for interference with a peace officer and ticketed for jaywalking.

Casper woman faces charges for alleged SNAP, Medicare fraud

CASPER (WNE) — A Casper woman faces two charges of theft after allegedly lying on multiple SNAP, energy assistance and Medicare applications to the tune of nearly $30,000. 

An affidavit filed by Robbyn White, a fraud investigator with the Department of Family Services, details a timeline of applications from August 2017 to November 2020 in which Anne Rocco made varying claims regarding the size of her household, monthly income and how she paid bills. 

According to White’s affidavit, Rocco repeatedly claimed nobody in her household was employed and that her husband no longer lived in the household. She also received loans from her sister to cover child support and rent.

Over the three years covered by the investigation, Rocco is accused of lying on 12 benefits applications.

“In the course of my investigation, I learned that...Anne Rocco’s husband and the father to both [their children], both owned the home and lived together,” White said in the affidavit. 

She also alleged that Rocco had been “receiving wages” from her sister — not monthly loans to be paid back — and that Rocco and her husband shared a bank account “where their employment income was deposited.” 

The charges carry a potential penalty of ten years and a $10,000 penalty each. 

As of Thursday morning, it was not apparent whether or not Rocco had been brought into custody. 

Cheyenne man sentenced for possession of 4,000 fentanyl pills

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Martin Anthony Martinez Jr., 32, of Cheyenne was sentenced to 77 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Wyoming.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson imposed the sentence on July 9. 

Based on court documents, beginning in June 2023, Martinez came to the attention of Task Force Officers with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) when he kept coming up during investigative interviews.

On July 5, 2023, a state search warrant was executed on his property, which resulted in the seizure of approximately 4000 fentanyl pills, 16 grams of methamphetamine and a loaded Glock 32 semi-automatic handgun.

Martinez pleaded guilty to the charge of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl on March 24.

Teen burned after driving with bucket of gasoline and starting car fire

GILLETTE (WNE) — An 18-year-old man was treated for apparent burns after trying to put out a fire that started in his friend’s car after they had driven to Northwest Park with a bucket of gasoline to start a bonfire.

Police responded to the park just after midnight Wednesday morning and found the man in pain with obvious burns, Police Deputy Chief Brent Wasson said.

The investigation found that a 17-year-old boy had driven several friends — the 18-year-old, a 20-year-old woman and two other 17-year-olds — to the park for a bonfire. The man who was injured held a bucket with about a gallon of gas between his feet during the drive, and some of it splashed inside of the 1998 Ford Mustang.

Once at the park, the driver lit the spilled gas, hoping to clear it from the seats, and the car was quickly engulfed in flames, Wasson said.

The 18-year-old tried smothering the fire with his shirt, and he and his clothing caught fire. He was taken to Campbell County Memorial Hospital with suspected second-degree burns, and the car was totaled by the fire, Wasson said.

No one has been charged and the investigation remains open.

Nuclear bill expected to be boon for Wyoming

CASPER (WNE) — President Biden on Wednesday signed a seminal bill that sets the stage for a new era of American nuclear energy, and Wyoming is poised to benefit if a nuclear renaissance takes hold. 

The bipartisan Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act aims to speed the development of novel nuclear technology while grounding a full-cycle nuclear fuel supply chain in America. 

The bill is years in the making and was shepherded with the help of Wyoming’s nuclear proponents, including Sen. Barrasso. 

It greases the wheels through investments in research, the creation of marketplace incentives, and a major overhaul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Under the bill, the NRC is required to streamline licensing for microreactors and nuclear facilities at brownfield and retired fossil-fuel energy generation sites, a move anticipated in Wyoming with last month’s groundbreaking of TerraPower’s Natrium plant in Kemmerer at the site of the Naughton coal power plant that’s scheduled for retirement in the coming years. 

In addition to process overhaul designed to accelerate licensing, the NRC is charged with creating a “prize” for private enterprises to incentivize next-generation reactor technologies. It will also focus on fuel by building out its administrative and testing capacity to speed the production of “accident-tolerant fuels” for increased safety and economic competitiveness. 

The bill aims to place the U.S. at the center of what’s expected to be a large export market for nuclear technology. It directs the Department of Energy to ready an approval process for exporting American nuclear technology to international markets while maintaining strong standards for nuclear non-proliferation. 

Wyoming is poised to be a major player in the up-and-coming nuclear energy market, given its vast uranium reserves, robust energy infrastructure and pro-nuclear leadership in both the statehouse and Congress.

150-megawatt solar farm opens in Laramie County

CHEYENNE (WNE) — A year ago, a piece of land in southern Laramie County off U.S. Highway 85 sat barren and looked like most undeveloped land in the area. Now, it is home to more than 315,500 solar panel modules that generate 150 megawatts of energy that will power a portion of the Meta data center set to open in 2027.

Managed by Southern Power, the company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the state’s newest solar farm that more than doubles Wyoming’s solar energy production. Southern Power acquired the project from Hanwha Qcells, a major South Korean solar panel manufacturer, in September 2023. They contracted Qcells for the manufacture and construction of the South Cheyenne Solar Facility while overseeing the project.

Southern Power President Robin Boren said the site was invested in and completed with the intention of supplying renewable energy to Meta’s data center all along.

The energy will be transferred to Meta over a 20-year contract between Southern Power, Black Hills Energy and Meta. In this contract, Southern Power produces the power and sells it to Black Hills Energy, which can use the power to meet the needs of its customers while also satisfying a deal with Meta to provide 150 megawatts of renewable energy to power its Cheyenne data center.

Though Meta has yet to release information about how much energy its Cheyenne facility will consume, it will likely be well over 150 megawatts. 

The South Cheyenne Solar Facility will help Meta meet its goal of powering the Cheyenne data center 100% from renewable energy sources.

Forest service calls in more resources to fight Horse Creek Fire

JACKSON (WNE) — The Bridger-Teton National Forest called in more resources Thursday to help fight the Horse Creek Fire about 20 miles southwest of Bondurant.

The lightning-caused fire was discovered July 1. It is 35 acres in size and burning timber about 2 miles northwest of the Blind Bull warming hut in the Big Piney Ranger District, according to a press release from the U.S. Forest Service.

Forest service managers closed trails in the vicinity for public safety and to allow firefighters and equipment to move. Portions of the North Horse Creek Trail, Dry Beaver Trail, Greenly Creek Trail west of its intersection with Rim Trail, Rim Trail and Horse Mountain Trail are closed.

Those are separate from trail closures for the prescribed burn at Monument Ridge.

The Type 3 Incident Management Team assumed command of the Horse Creek Fire early Thursday morning, and was brought in because the fire now exceeds the resources the Forest Service has available. 

Ten firefighters and one helicopter are working on the Horse Creek Fire. Because the fire is burning in a string of conifer trees on a steep slope, the plan is to confine and contain the blaze and keep firefighters out of the snags while suppressing the fire.

The fire danger rating for the Bridger-Teton National Forest was upgraded to “high” on Tuesday. That means fires can start easily from most causes.

The Horse Creek Fire is one of two active fires in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, according to the Teton Interagency Fire map. The other is in the upper Curtis Canyon area, where a small, abandoned campfire without a fire ring was found smoldering July 5.

Gray applauds House passage of voter eligibility act

CHEYENNE (WNE) — On Thursday, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray issued a statement applauding the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of H.R. 8281, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a day earlier.

The SAVE Act ensures only U.S. citizens vote in elections for federal office by requiring documentary proof of citizenship at the time of voter registration. The SAVE Act was introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and cosponsored by Wyoming’s Rep. Harriet Hageman.

“As I have said previously, I am in complete and total support of the SAVE Act,” Gray said in a news release. “Only U.S. Citizens should be voting in our elections. With the ongoing Biden-created crisis at the southern border affecting each and every state, including Wyoming, preventing illegal aliens from voting is paramount to election integrity, and national security. Our office previously adopted amendments to our Election Procedures that would have prevented illegal immigrants from registering to vote and that would have required proof of Wyoming residency to register to vote. But our election integrity rules, very similar to the SAVE Act, were vetoed by Governor Mark Gordon. Governor Gordon’s veto was very unfortunate. Government at all levels should ensure appropriate safeguards to ensure only U.S. citizens, not illegal aliens, are voting.”

The measure still has to be approved by the U.S. Senate to take effect.

Economic Analysis Division releases June 2024 insight

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Natural gas prices improved slightly in June, while oil prices remained steady, according to the June 2024 issue of The Wyoming Insight, which serves as an energy index and business indicators report for the state.

The June 2024 natural gas price at the Opal Hub averaged $1.71 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), $0.37 more than last month. The Henry Hub natural gas price averaged $2.53/MMBtu in June, $0.40 higher than last month. 

The West Texas Intermediate monthly average price for crude oil was $82.69 per bbl. in June, up 3.2% compared to last month. Average active oil rigs were 12 in June and the conventional gas rig count was 1. A year ago, there were 16 oil rigs and 2 conventional gas rigs.

Total sales and use tax collections in June summed to $71.8 million, $3.8 million (-5.0%) less than June last year. 

“This is the third time total sales and use tax collections have decreased year-over-year in the last four months,” said Dylan Bainer, principal economist for Wyoming’s Economic Analysis Division.

Collections from the mining sector also saw a decrease, down $1.6 million (-16.4%) year-over-year, and mining employment is still down compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“Relative to February 2020 (before the pandemic hit the labor market in March 2020), total employment has surpassed pre-COVID levels, but employment in the mining sector has still not fully recovered,” said Bainer. Compared to February 2020, total employment in May 2024 was up 4,400 jobs, but employment in the mining sector was down 2,800 jobs.

Wyoming Insight is available at the state of Wyoming’s Economic Analysis Division website ai.wyo.gov/divisions/economic- analysis.