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Wyoming News Briefs

Man pleads not guilty to drug charge from 90-pound pot bust

RAWLINS (WNE) — Michael Andrew Young has pleaded not guilty to a mixture of felony and misdemeanor charges resulting from a Feb. 2 bust which discovered more than 90 pounds of marijuana in his car.

According to court records, the bust occurred after Wyoming Highway Patrol officer Andy Martinez watched Young’s red SUV blow by at 90 miles an hour. Despite Young’s speedy cross-country travel, suspended license and drugs in tow, he immediately pulled over. 

During this initial exchange between officer and alleged drug trafficker, the odor of marijuana permeated the air. The oppressive smell pushed Martinez to inquire about the odor, to which Young responded he had several joints in a cigarette box. With this admission in hand, Martinez arrested Young and signaled for backup to help search the vehicle. 

The center console yielded the first hint this stop may be more than a simple personal stash of the marijuana. Law enforcement officers found plastic bags filled with marijuana, though the handful of bags paled in comparison to the weed stored in the back seat. 

The back seats were laid down and had eight bags of marijuana visible in addition to an entire box filled with sealed packages of the drug. The enormous haul of drugs simply sat on the seat, easily visible once officers opened the door. 

The final tally: 90 pounds of marijuana for delivery, two grams of meth, and five THC oil cartridges found in Young’s vehicle. 

Young pleaded not guilty to a collection of charges that could net him more than 17 years in prison and $22,000 in fines.

Kidnapping suspect faces three felony charges in Cheyenne

CHEYENNE (WNE) — The man accused of kidnapping a one-year-old child and assaulting the child’s pregnant mother Thursday is facing several felony charges in Cheyenne, along with new charges from his arrest in Colorado.

Mijito Johnson, 26, was charged Friday with two felony counts of aggravated assault against a pregnant woman and a charge of interference with custody of a child.

Johnson currently is in custody in Aurora, Colorado, where he also faces misdemeanor charges of interference with an officer and related to his arrest.

According to the charges, Johnson allegedly struck his pregnant girlfriend multiple times before taking the infant from her arms and fleeing to his brother’s house in Colorado.

An Amber Alert was issued in Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, prompting a multi-state search for the abducted child.

Johnson was arrested by the Aurora Police Department late Thursday night. Officers found his vehicle abandoned in a parking lot and located him a short distance away at his brother’s residence.

He currently is in custody in Aurora on a no-hold bond, and is scheduled for his first court date May 9.

Granderson charges still pending as draft approaches

LARAMIE (WNE) — With two weeks until the 2019 NFL Draft, it seems that the top prospect from the University of Wyoming, defensive end Carl Granderson, will still have a sexual assault case pending against him on draft day.

Granderson is currently facing third-degree sexual assault charges after he allegedly molested two women who were sleeping at his apartment on South 23rd Street in November.

The incident occurred the day after UW’s football season ended.

He pleaded “not guilty” to the charges Friday at an arraignment in Albany County’s district court.

The “not guilty” plea itself, however, gives no indication of whether Granderson actually intends to assert he’s innocent of the crime. The overwhelming majority of defendants who plead not guilty at their arraignment later plead guilty once prosecutors and defense attorney have hashed out a plea deal.

Under state statute, prosecutors must typically bring a case to trial within 180 days of the defendant’s arraignment.

A procedural plea of “not guilty” merely sets a deadline for a trial and, typically, spurs plea negotiations.

Before the charges were filed, Granderson was projected as a mid-round draft pick. One of the NFL’s own analysts is still predicting that he’ll be drafted, but in the sixth round.

A month ago, Granderson had a strong showing at the NFL Scouting Combine, where he declined to discuss the charges with reporters. Had he been convicted of the sexual assault charge at the time, he would have been ineligible to participate.

Two women reported to the UW Police Department on Nov. 26 that Granderson “had touched them sexually, without their permission, while they were sleeping” that same day.

Newcastle to test biochar at compost site

NEWCASTLE (WNE) — The city is testing a new program that turns wooded waste collected at the city compost site into biochar instead of grinding the waste into a wood chip product. 

On April 1, Travis Peterson, city arborist, told the Newcastle City Council that he had recently tested a process for turning the waste into biochar and that it was cheaper. According to Peterson, the city realized an annual net gain of $30,101.70.

Biochar is a charcoal used as a valuable soil additive, according to biochar-international.org. 

Peterson said he has been kicking around the idea of turning collected waste at the compost site into biochar but had not acted on the idea until now.

He said that he burned down the waste in two different “pit kilns” to provide a safe and clean controlled batch burn. 

The biochar conversion limits the volume of product the city has to deal with and saves the city money, Peterson said. 

According to Peterson, the wooded waste collected in 2017 was ground by contracting a company from Montana and total cost to the city was $13,591. The volume of the chips created was 675 cubic yards, enough to fill 18 school buses. 

Turning the 2018 collected waste into biochar, according to Peterson, cost the city a total of $1,378.30 and created 67 cubic yards of volume, enough to fill nearly two school buses. 

“The value of the biochar from the 2019 pilot project is $17,889 at $267 a cubic yard,” Peterson said. “The annual net gain for the City of Newcastle is $30,101.70.”

 
 
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