Wyoming News Briefs

Wyoming unemployment rate falls slightly

CHEYENNE (WNE) — The Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported Monday that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 5.2% in December to 5.1% in January.

Wyoming has recently completed a comprehensive annual revision of its unemployment data. The revised data show that the state’s unemployment rate peaked at 8.5% in May 2020 and has steadily decreased since then. Wyoming’s January unemployment rate of 5.1% was much lower than the U.S. rate of 6.3%.

Most county unemployment rates followed their normal seasonal pattern and increased from December to January. Unemployment rates often rise in January as seasonal job losses are seen in many sectors, including construction, retail trade, transportation & warehousing, leisure and hospitality, and government.

The largest jobless rate increases were seen in Sublette (up from 6.7% to 8.3%), Big Horn (up from 4.7% to 6.2%), Niobrara (up from 3.9% to 5.2%), and Hot Springs (up from 4.4% to 5.6%) counties.

From January 2020 to January 2021, unemployment rates rose in nearly every county. The largest increases were seen in areas of the state dominated by the energy sector. Converse County’s unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 6.7%, Natrona County’s rate rose from 5.2% to 8.2%, Campbell County’s rate rose from 4.4% to 7.0%, and Sweetwater County’s rate rose from 6.2% to 7.7%. In contrast to those increases, Big Horn County’s unemployment rate was unchanged from a year earlier at 6.2%.

Man arrested in six sex crimes

RIVERTON (WNE) — A conspicuous notation on a recent Fremont County Sheriff’s Office arrest record form shows a 43-year-old male arrested by the Riverton Police Department for six sex crimes.

The man remains anonymous, as Wyoming law orders protection of sex-crime detainees’ identities unless and until they are sent to the district court on a demonstration of probable cause.

In fact, public employees who disclose the identity of defendants charged with sex crimes during the preliminary phase of prosecution are liable to be prosecuted themselves, with a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and $750 in fines.

The detainee is registered as a resident of Sweetwater, Oklahoma.

His arrest lists five counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, and one count of sexual assault in the first degree.

Charges of sexual assault are rare compared with those of sexual abuse, and the state would have to prove the use of mental or physical force, duress, or wrongful mental advantage to convict someone on the assault claim.

However, the penalties are similar: sexual abuse carries a maximum of 50 years in prison under first-degree circumstances, and assault is punishable by 5-50.

Most of the arrest-log notation labelled “sex offense” is redacted.

It was reported at 7:43 a.m. in the Riverton area on Feb. 25 and is “under investigation.”

Man sentenced to jail for punching teen

CODY (WNE) — A man was sentenced to 14 days in jail after pleading guilty to child endangerment.

Per his plea agreement, his original felony charge for child abuse was reduced to the misdemeanor charge. 

Juan Marquez, 38, was arrested in August after the victim’s grandmother reported Marquez had punched a 13-year-old minor 10-20 times in the arm and smashed the victim’s face into the outside of a vehicle. The grandmother said this was in response to the victim telling Marquez they did not know how to drive the vehicle when he requested they take him to Powell.

The victim had bruising consistent with these allegations.

“The bruising was very obvious,” said Allen Cooper, a deputy with the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

When dropping the victim off at their grandmothers, he threatened the victim to not report anything about the incidents. 

Cooper viewed text messages from Marquez apologizing for his actions after the fact.

Marquez was arrested in July and served 56 days in Park County Detention Center initially. 

Judge Bill Simpson sentenced Marquez in Park County District Court Jan. 6.

He was also assessed one year of unsupervised probation and $400 in court fees.

Marquez has an extensive criminal history including battery, unlawful contact and violation of a protection order.

Trial in New Year’s fatal accident moved to district court

PINEDALE (WNE) — After changing her hearing dates in Circuit Court, Jade S. Jewkes, of Jackson, waived her right to a preliminary hearing and will face two aggravated homicide felony charges in 9th District Court. 

She was charged by Sublette County Attorney Mike Crosson after the New Year’s Day death of Shane Deal, of Pinedale, in a fatal collision in Hoback Canyon. 

Her March 1 preliminary hearing was rescheduled for March 25 at her attorney John LaBuda’s request. Now with her case bound over to 9th District Court on March 3, Judge Marv Tyler will set an arraignment there. 

Jewkes is charged with two counts of aggravated homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol after being involved in a fatal collision in Hoback Canyon on Jan. 1. 

The two vehicular homicide felonies are based on varying degrees of alleged alcohol intoxication. Jewkes was driving north on Highway 191 on the afternoon of New Year’s Day and others on the road reported her erratic driving across the two-lane highway, according to court records. 

Driving a 2015 Jeep Cherokee, she collided nearly head-on with Deal, who was driving a 2005 plow truck in the southbound lane. The Jeep’s airbags and seatbelt protected Jewkes from serious injury – she suffered minor cuts to her hand. 

The truck did not have airbags and Deal, although wearing a seatbelt, was very seriously injured and later died. 

Yellowstone adopts reservation system for some campgrounds

JACKSON (WNE) — Yellowstone National Park has announced that it is following in its southern neighbor’s footsteps and converting some campgrounds to reservation-only for the coming summer.

Earlier this year, Grand Teton National Park announced it was doing away with all first-come, first-served camping, and had converted its 800-plus sites spread throughout seven campgrounds to reservation-only.

The same shift in Yellowstone applies to the Mammoth and Slough Creek campgrounds and a portion of the Pebble Creek campground. Yellowstone concessionaire Xanterra already operated five of the park’s 12 campgrounds as reservation-only, and that leaves just five campgrounds with first-come, first-served sites — but two, Norris and Tower Falls campgrounds, will be closed in 2021.

Impromptu roadtrippers who roll into Northwest Wyoming’s two flagship national parks in summer 2021 are down to three spots where unplanned camping will be in the cards: Lewis Lake Campground, the Indian Creek Campground and a portion of Pebble Creek. Collectively, they offer 166 campsites that will be available without a reservation. With 30,000-plus visitors passing through Yellowstone during each peak summer day, there promises to be hearty competition.

According to Yellowstone’s public affairs office, the changes were made at the request of visitors.

“The ability to make reservations will enable visitors to plan their trips ahead of time and provide assurance that they will have a campsite upon arrival,” park officials wrote. “It will enrich the visitor experience by reducing traffic congestion at campgrounds, improving safety, and eliminate uncertainty and frustration.”

Boot camp to move to Rawlins, Lusk

NEWCASTLE (WNE) — The Youthful Offender Transition Program, formerly known as boot camp, will be moving from the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle, according to information provided in an email from the Wyoming Department of Corrections. 

The program is slated to move to the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and a unit at the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk, the information states. 

“The program for the men is being moved to the WSP to better utilize the space the Department of Corrections has available,” the email says. “In the past few years, we have not had enough young men to fill the space, so we are relocating the program to a unit within a different prison. The women have previously been sent out of state to states that have youthful offender programs to participate in their program.” 

The space currently housing the program at the Newcastle facility will likely be used as a substance abuse treatment unit for female offenders, the email states. This should prevent the department from being forced to send females to county jails in the state due to overcrowding at the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk. 

“These moves should allow WDOC to house all Wyoming inmates in WDOC facilities,” the email concludes. 

The Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp now houses 223 inmates, with 79 staff members. 

Requests for further information, including potential staffing and budget impacts of the relocation, were not answered by press time.

Shell woman competes in ‘Ultimate Cowboy Showdown’; episodes airing on INSP TV

GREYBULL (WNE) — Shell native and Greybull High School graduate Morgan Flitner is among 14 cowboys competing in the second season of Ultimate Cowboy Showdown.

Morgan, who said ranching and “cowboying” is in her DNA, is a homegrown, hard-working member of a family that planted its roots deep into Shell Valley over a century ago.

She is a fifth-generation rancher who said a lot of times people “don’t take me seriously; but when I get a rope in my hands,” they know she’s for real.

The 14 contestants are “bunk-housed” at the Texas ranch of country music icon Trace Adkins. Each of the cowboys/cowgirls locks horns in a number of grueling challenges that test them both physically and mentally, individually and as a member of a team. 

Organizers said the competition also brings out other aspects of the contestants’ personalities: wit, humor, empathy, chivalry and compassion.

Adkins and a panel of experts judge the contestants’ skills, knowledge, grit and passion.

One-by-one the contestants who “can’t stack up to the challenge” are eliminated until only one stands, winning the prize of a lifetime.

The grand prize? His or her own herd of cattle plus a Rawhide Portable Corral, an Arrowquip Q-catch 87 series Cattle Chute, the coveted Ultimate Cowboy Showdown belt-buckle and a lifetime of bragging rights – and memories.

This competition is real, and it’s serious to Morgan. 

“It means something to me. It’s my livelihood and I’m going to fight for it,” she said.

The series premiered on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 9 p.m. on INSP-TV.

Man sentenced to 206-230 years in cold case

LARAMIE (WNE) – Mark Douglas Burns, 70, of Ogden, Utah, was sentenced Feb. 17 by Albany County Second Judicial District Court Judge Tori Kricken for the 1996 sexual assault of a Laramie resident. 

Burns pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault in the first degree; one count of burglary; and one count of kidnapping-confinement. He received a sentence of 206 – 230 years in prison.

In May 2015, after DNA entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) linked nine cases to the same offender, several law enforcement agencies in Utah and Wyoming created a task force to collaborate on their cold case investigations. 

Through the collaborative efforts of the task force, and the assistance of the Cold Justice program, Mark Douglas Burns was arrested Sept. 25, 2019 in Ogden, Utah. 

Joel Senior, a former Laramie Police Department Detective who had been working on Laramie’s cold case for several years, worked with the task force and traveled to Utah with Laramie Police Department Officer Matt Leibovitz for the arrest of Burns and collection of evidence.