Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884

Wyoming News Briefs

Enzi service set for Aug. 6 in Gillette

GILLETTE (WNE) — A public ceremony to celebrate the life of former U.S. senator and former Gillette mayor Mike Enzi, begins at 1 p.m. Aug. 6 at the Gillette College Pronghorn Center located, fittingly, just off Enzi Drive.

Jerrica Mills, the office manager of Gillette Memorial Chapel, confirmed that Pastor Donavon Voigt of First Baptist Church will officiate.

Instead of flowers, the announcement from the funeral home suggested memorials can be made to Project Mercy, Mike and Diana Enzi Scholarship Fund at the University of Wyoming, and the Wyoming Community Foundation Mike & Diana Enzi Charitable Fund.

Enzi died Monday after sustaining injuries in a bicycling accident Friday near his home.

He served 24 years in the U.S. Senate, 10 years in the Wyoming Legislature and eight years as Gillette’s mayor.

Judge rules confessed killer can’t change his guilty plea

RIVERTON (WNE) –- Having confessed to shooting another man in the head with a rifle, Seth Blackburn will not be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea. 

Blackburn, who is about 31 years old, pleaded guilty May 21 to the Aug. 5, 2019 murder of Victor Dale Addison. The defendant told the court he’d heard bad things about Addison and suspected Addison was involved in the Aug. 3, 2019, death of Martika Spoonhunter. He also said he “tried to take justice into my own hands, and…shot him in the head.” 

On July 22, Blackburn filed a motion to withdraw the guilty plea and the confession, claiming his former attorney coerced him into pleading.

United States District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled on July 28 that Blackburn may not withdraw his guilty plea. 

“After Seth Blackburn, in the courtroom and under oath, described killing Victor Addison by deliberately shooting him in the head, the court finds his current assertion of innocence to lack all credibility,” wrote Skavdahl. “He has offered no factual evidence, nor has the court found any in its own review of the case…supporting his claim of actual innocence.” 

The judge also addressed the claim of coercion by supplying Blackburn’s own May 21 statements that he was not being coerced and was pleading voluntarily. 

Blackburn’s sentencing hearing originally was set for July 29 but has been re-set for Aug. 19 at 8:15 a.m. in Skavdahl’s court. Conviction by a jury would have resulted in a mandatory life sentence, rather than the 50-65 years Blackburn agreed to through his guilty plea. 

Lovell man sentenced to prison for check fraud

POWELL (WNE) — After passing thousands of dollars’ worth of bad checks — including some stolen from his mother and grandmother — to businesses around northern Wyoming, a Lovell man is headed back to prison. 

Philip K. Mickelson recently received a five- to seven-year sentence for felony counts of check fraud and forgery in Park County. 

Mickelson has pleaded guilty to additional felony check fraud-related charges in Campbell and Washakie counties that are expected to tack on an additional three years of supervised probation, which will be served after he’s released from prison. 

Charging documents written by investigators in Cody, Worland and Gillette say Mickelson issued more than $14,000 worth of bad or stolen checks between mid-November and mid-January. Most were written on an empty account belonging to Mickelson, but two of the purchases came from checks he stole from his family, charging documents say. 

Cody Police Detective Rick Tillery said Mickelson “established a pattern of writing bad checks with Bomgaars Stores across Wyoming,” while doing the same at Ace Hardware stores in Cody and Worland. 

Mickelson was sentenced in Park County in June and was ordered to pay $5,592.56 in restitution to the Cody Bomgaars and Ace stores. Meanwhile, he pleaded guilty to forgery in Campbell County last month and has agreed to pay $5,931.02 in restitution to the Bomgaars in Gillette, court records say. 

He’s set to be formally sentenced on Sept. 29, but the deal calls for him to receive a five- to seven-year prison sentence that will overlap with the one he received in Park County. 

While 13 bad checks are detailed in the charging documents, Tillery obtained Citibank records indicating that, between early October and late December, Mickelson bounced a total of 22 checks.