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Michael P. Ramirez

Daily Cartoon

[{"type":"text","text":"By Michael P. Ramirez"}]

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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Cartoon: Thursday, April 27, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

By Michael P. Ramirez

Daily Cartoon: Thursday, April 27, 2023

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

CASPER — Thirteen years ago, James Pulver sat in a jail cell wondering whether his life was over.

At 24, he was facing federal kidnapping and domestic violence-related charges and staring at a $100,000 cash bond — an amount so far beyond his reach it may as well have been $1 million.

He remembers the clang of the steel doors, the uncertainty, and the crushing realization that he had no idea what happened next.

"You don't know anything," Pulver recalls "You don't know the process. You don't know the courts. You don't know what's coming."

Eventually, Pulver accepted a plea agreement, pleading no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence and misdemeanor theft after spending 367 days in the Fremont County Detention Center.

He still insists the most serious allegations against him weren't true, but says the experience permanently changed how he views people accused of crimes.

Today, when someone in Wyoming is arrested and their family doesn't know where to turn, there's a decent chance the phone rings on Pulver's desk.

[{"type":"text","text":"The irony isn't lost on him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Before I was a bail bondsman,\" he said, \"I was an inmate.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Bond"}]

Most people picture a bail bondsman as someone who signs paperwork, takes a fee and disappears.

Pulver, who lives in Casper, laughs at that; he said he believes his job is to guide defendants through one of the most frightening experiences of their lives.

[{"type":"text","text":"He said his sister calls him the \"bail bond doula.\""}]

His advice starts immediately. He tells his bondees: eat well, get sunlight, and stay sober. 

"You're already walking in there in shackles looking guilty," he said. "They're literally judging you."

Know your lawyer's phone number. Know your address before standing in front of a judge.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wear your nicest clothes."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Be clean-shaven."}]

Pulver tells clients they have an advantage once they're released on bond: they can prepare.

[{"type":"text","text":"Someone sitting in jail cannot."}]

"If you're out," he said, "you can do all these things that make you look better."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Freedom Business "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver's work exists because of one uniquely American business model."}]

When a judge sets bail, defendants who can't afford to post the full amount often hire a commercial bail bondsman.

Typically, the defendant pays a nonrefundable premium — about 10% of the total bond — while the bondsman guarantees the full amount to the court.

[{"type":"text","text":"For a $10,000 bond, that usually means paying around $1,000."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The fee is never returned, but the real risk belongs to the bondsman. "}]

If the defendant disappears and fails to appear in court, the bondsman is on the hook for the entire bond.

[{"type":"text","text":"That's why Pulver almost never accepts a bond without collateral."}]

[{"type":"text","text":" \"Cars. Land. I'll take your parents' house,\" he says. "}]

Pulver says the collateral often tells a bigger story than the crime itself. When parents, spouses or siblings are willing to put their own home on the line, he sees more than financial security—he sees a support system.

Some defendants, he said, don't have that luxury. Years of addiction, broken promises or repeated arrests have left them with no one left to call. That's often when he knows the odds of success are much lower.

"The family is what they need," Pulver said. "That's who's going to help them the most."

It's also why he bristles when people assume bounty hunters spend their days chasing criminals for fun.

"My job isn't to catch bad guys," he said. "My job is to get them to court."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"All this chasing and kicking down doors — that's TV.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he smiles."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We're just trying to save our money.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Waiting ..."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver's first fugitive recovery began with a 16-hour drive to Texas."}]

A veteran bounty hunter named Craig Zibell had offered to teach him the business. Their first assignment was to find a Wyoming fugitive accused of stealing his father's pickup, driving it to Denver and boarding a plane south.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver had never tracked anyone previously."}]

By the time they reached Texas, he'd pieced together the man's whereabouts through Facebook posts and other online clues. The trail led them to an apartment complex.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then everything stopped."}]

For nearly three days, the pair sat in a truck watching a single apartment door.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"You don't move,\" Pulver said. \"You just sit there and stare.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Food stayed in the cab. Bathroom breaks were carefully timed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Hours slipped into days."}]

Pulver learned then and there that being a bounty hunter requires a lot of patience. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The stakeout eventually paid off."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The fugitive walked outside and the arrest happened without much drama."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rolling Downhill"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Not every recovery ends quietly."}]

One fugitive had been repeatedly contacting a woman against orders.

Pulver and another recovery agent borrowed a vehicle and positioned themselves nearby, hoping the man would appear.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver sprinted toward him."}]

Instead of surrendering, the man — whom Pulver estimates weighed around 280 pounds — turned and threw a punch.

Within seconds, the two men were tumbling down a steep hillside in the dark.

"I grabbed him by the collar," Pulver recalled. "I made sure I landed 

[{"type":"text","text":"They rolled to the bottom still fighting."}]

Pulver eventually gained control long enough for his partner to help secure the arrest.

[{"type":"text","text":"The bruises lingered for weeks."}]

He still keeps photographs on his phone showing the deep purple marks stretching across his back.

[{"type":"text","text":"His wife later said, \"James, you've got to do things smarter.\" "}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He's Got a Gun!' "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"No bond is worth someone getting killed” Pulver says. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The most dangerous recovery he remembers wasn't one he finished himself."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It started with a runner who crossed state lines into rural Utah."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver followed leads until local authorities became involved."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then the operation exploded into helicopters circling overhead."}]

Drones launched, and a SWAT team appeared out of nowhere.  Armored vehicles rolled into position.

Pulver found himself standing at the command post listening to radio traffic alongside law enforcement officers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the transmission:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He's got a gun! He's got a gun!\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"For several agonizing minutes, no one said anything."}]

Pulver remembers staring at the radios, wondering if someone had just been killed.

[{"type":"text","text":"Finally, another voice broke through."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We got him.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The suspects were taken into custody."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Half-Million-Dollar Gamble"}]

In 2020, Pulver agreed to post a $500,000 cash-or-surety bond for Danelle Moyte, a Cheyenne second-grade teacher charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of her boyfriend, Christopher Garcia.

Prosecutors alleged that Moyte shot Garcia inside their home after an argument. She maintained that she acted in self-defense and pleaded not guilty.

[{"type":"text","text":"Writing a half-million-dollar bond wasn't simply a business decision."}]

It was a financial gamble large enough to destroy his company if it went wrong.

Pulver said he only agreed after Moyte's family came forward with what he considers the two most important ingredients for any bond: support and accountability. 

A family member pledged a fully paid-off home as collateral. The family promised to help ensure Moyte complied with every court order.

Moyte remained free while awaiting trial under strict conditions, including GPS monitoring.

[{"type":"text","text":"She found work loading UPS trucks overnight."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To Pulver, that mattered."}]

One of the first things he tells clients after bonding them out is to find employment, establish routine and show judges they're making productive use of their freedom.

When Moyte's case finally went to trial, a 12-person jury acquitted her of all charges.

James Pulver Screenshot 2026 07 05 at 9 14 48 AM 7 5 26

<title>Wyoming Bondsman Is Part Bounty Hunter, Part Counselor — And A Former Inmate | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper bail bondsman has an unorthodox job that requires him to be part bounty hunter and part life counselor. And he can empathize with his clients. "Before I was a bail bondsman, I was an inmate," he said.

Wyoming Bondsman Is Part Bounty Hunter, Part Counselor — And A Former Inmate

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Jeffrey City is best known for uranium and near abandonment after the yellowcake market crashed in the 1980s. 

But things are looking up for the near-ghost town in the central desert region of Fremont County. 

And that’s not because of Wyoming’s renewed uranium rush or Visionary Metals’ new nickel project nearby. 

Jeffrey City, which has about 60 residents after boasting around 4,000 during its uranium heyday, could be poised for a brand-new industry thanks to a Canadian geologist named Jean-Pierre Jutras, who said he’s on the verge of finding significant new sources of both ornamental and gem-quality jade.

“Wyoming jade is legendary in the circles of jade carvers,” Jutras told Cowboy State Daily. “Production has been curtailed for a long time, and everything’s been looked at quite a bit and picked over, but when I looked at Wyoming as a geologist, what struck me was that there was barely any information at all on the geology.”

Jutras’ company, Jade Leader, is taking a similar tack to that of 

, which is using new geological knowledge and new technology to uncover deeper veins of gold in the South Pass area and other Wyoming locations.

“We just decided to take a hard look and see if the sources of a lot of the surface material that was collected from the '30s all the way to the '70s could be identified and if we could understand if there was any significant potential for renewed production.”

At one time, Wyoming had so much jade laying around on the surface people could walk around and pluck it straight from the sagebrush.

That supported roughly 868 tons of jade production from the 1930s to the 1970s. There was even a company devoted to jewelry production that was sending 18 tons of materials into the world annually, to Taiwan, New Zealand, Europe, and Far Eastern countries.

But as the easy jade became rarer and rarer, the state could no longer support the scale anymore. 

Wyoming’s decline happened about the same time as the Canadian jade industry was starting to rise.

How A Canadian Became A ‘Jade-aholic’

Growing up in Canada, Jutras was interested in rocks and geology from a young age. A career as a geologist only seemed logical. 

In the 1980s, he was gifted some jade from a mine he was allowed to visit, which honed his interest in this semiprecious stone formed by intense environmental conditions found deep underground. 

“I took that home and I’ve been cutting and carving jade and other gemstones ever since then, alongside my geological career,” he said. “So I kind of became a jade-aholic very quickly, very early.”

It wasn’t until he was invited to a jade-carving competition in China, though, that he realized just how interesting — and valuable — jade is.

“To me, jade was like the little souvenirs and tourist shop pieces,” he said. “Once in a while there’s a historical piece that’s really nice. So I went to this festival not knowing what to expect.”

When he arrived at the Zi Gang Bei Festival in Suzhou, he witnessed a spectacle unlike any he’d never seen.

There were 550 competing jade carvers who had brought more than 1,100 pieces for judging. 

During the three-day event, more than 90,000 visitors streamed in to admire the pieces entered in the competition, as well as to buy jade. 

“I was so impressed, first, because of the quality of the carvings that were there, valued in the millions of dollars per piece,” Jutras said. “And we saw jades of all qualities. We saw carvings from Guatemala, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, the U.S., and, of course, China. And I looked at all of this and went, ‘I’m missing something here. How did I not know about this?’”

Jutras had planned to stay for just a week, but decided instead to stay longer and keep exploring this vast new world of jade, visiting all the carving towns and all of the major markets.

“In one of the towns I visited, called Shifosi, they said they had 125,000 carvers, just in that one town alone,” he said. “It was incredible, and essentially all of the businesses in China that sell jade go there because that’s the big manufacturing center. And I mean, it was display after display, buildings the size of airplane hangars, with 2,000, 3,000 vendors in them.”

It was during this time that he learned the jade the Chinese most prized came from Wyoming. It was also the jade that had disproportionately earned gold medals during the festival.

“It’s received extremely well at the highest level, in a culture highly sophisticated in the jade arts,” Jutras said.

The Chinese have been obsessed with jade for generations.

Emperors made entire suits of jade to wear on their journey to the afterlife.

“We’re talking about 7,000 little tiles of jade all connected together with gold wires that they would clothe the dead with,” Jutras said. “So they could go into the afterlife protected with jade.”

These jade tiles were often said to be too precious to steal, he added. That’s because only nobles were allowed to own it.

“They opened up a tomb and it had a sarcophagus of jade,” Jutras said. “And the thieves had gone in and stolen everything else, including the gold wire that was connecting the jade plates. But they left the jade because you just couldn’t fence jade if you weren’t a noble.”

While most jades worldwide consist of recrystallization of a previous rock, Wyoming’s jade appears to have crystalized at greater depths within the earth, resulting in a much purer, more predictable material that takes one of the best polishes found in nephrite jade worldwide. 

That is why it’s so highly prized by the Chinese.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Finding New Jade Sources"}]

Jutras returned from his Chinese trip after a month with a mission in mind.

Conventional wisdom had it that Wyoming jade had petered out in the 1970s, but geological knowledge had evolved since that determination was made, as had the technology for finding precious gems, minerals and metals. 

“What you have to unravel is why jade was in a particular location in the first place,” he said. “Where did it come from? So you could go to a place where people have picked all the surface stuff and see if there’s a source somewhere beneath it.”

Instead of chasing more famous, rock-hounding spots like Bull Canyon, Jutras instead sought bedrock targets, which he believes could be the original sources of all that loose jade once picked up by the bucketful. These are targets he believes can support a small, but steady, jade industry over the long haul.

The work, which began in 2018, has cost Jade Leader roughly $337,000, and has included six phases of field work north of Jeffrey City, including trenching, mapping, and scientific studies. 

Results of that work have been published in the Journal of Gemology, which is the British Gemological Society’s association publication. The peer-reviewed article outlines two distinct types of jade found by Jade Leader. 

There’s the smoother, more homogenous material that’s suitable for jewelry, which he refers to as gem jade. Then there’s a rougher, more mottled stone called ornamental jade.

Once, ornamental jade was only suitable for carving little souvenirs to sell in tourist shops, but Jutras said the time is right for a new use. 

“LED technology is improving all the time,” he said. “Cutting technologies are improving all the time.”

That now allows this type of jade to be cut into thin, translucent slices that can be backlit to stunning result.

“We see a space here where the ornamental jades can be an addition to the luxury stone market,” Jutras said.

To test the theory, Jade Leader has taken a small quantity of its ornamental jade to create a few test installations and see if this idea can find footing in the luxury architecture space. 

They’ve also sold a $50,000 batch of Wyoming’s rough jade into experimental projects where designers are testing how the stone looks in thin backlit panels.

Jutras’ vision for Jeffrey City will depend on finding demand for niche, high-end architectural and carving jade. 

For now, the project is in the early days. It’s backed by promising field work and it’s economically feasible, Jutras said, because his targets are small and have a small environmental footprint, one that does not require use of anything hazardous.

“We’re talking about 1 to 2 acres essentially, to harvest the material,” he said. “And then all we do is just jackhammer the rock and extract whatever jade is contained within it, and then put the debris back into the excavation for reclamation. There’s no need to build up any kind of large infrastructure at all.”

There’s also no need for large amounts of water to process the stone, nor any crushing, tailings or mechanical separation required. 

“It’s all done by hand,” he said. “And there’s no need for processing the material outside of just polishing a side of the pieces, so it shows us the inside texture, color and translucency of the stone.”

For now, Jeffrey City is still an open question. But if the market for architectural jade proves out, the windswept outpost might find itself a new niche in the jade world. 

Its second act might not be written in uranium at all, but translucent green instead. 

Jeffrey city jade inset 7 5 26

<title>Jeffrey City’s Second Act: From Near Uranium Ghost Town To Jade Comeback | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Known for uranium and then near-abandonment, Jeffrey City is getting a second look from a Canadian geologist who says new science — and evolving markets — could turn Wyoming’s deposits of jade into a new industry for the tiny almost-ghost town.

Jeffrey City’s Second Act: From Near Uranium Ghost Town To Jade Comeback

Kerry Drake

Around Wyoming

Toa, a puppy on the Wind River Indian Reservation, didn’t have a name yet when he was recently rescued by a family in Ethete, which found him with a fishing line tied to his right front leg.

Some children were reportedly seen swinging him around by the line, severely injuring the leg. But thanks to the family that found Toa, his leg was not only eventually amputated he also helped find the 14 brothers, sisters and cousins from whom he had strayed.

It was a dramatic rescue, but one of many made possible by Yola’s Pet Rescue in Cheyenne, which focuses on getting stray and feral dogs wandering the reservation spayed and neutered, then finding people who will adopt them.

JM Marschner, who opened the clinic in 2017, told Cowboy State Daily she and her volunteers have worked with other rescue groups to find more than 3,000 dogs and cats on the reservation.

Marschner said she started working there because there are so many stray and feral dogs, and the reservation doesn’t have a veterinarian or animal shelter. The closest vets are in Lander and Riverton.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Large Litters"}]

When Toa was found, a call went to Yola’s Pet Rescue late on a Saturday night. Marschner dispatched one of her volunteers to the scene to meet the woman who rescued Toa, and together they discovered 18 other puppies from two litters. 

Four later died, and Marschner said while “it was touch and go” for the three smallest pups, 14 survived and were sent to the Laramie Animal Welfare Society.

Toa didn’t make that trip because a veterinarian had to perform an emergency amputation. After some recovery time, he joined the rest of his puppy pals in Laramie. 

That’s where he got his name, plus much love and attention from the staff and volunteers.

Corina Slyman of LAWS said dogs brought to the clinic can’t be adopted until they’ve been spayed or neutered, had their vaccinations, and been microchipped. LAWS works to arrange for foster homes, but doesn’t have enough space to keep rescued dogs.

“We mainly take care of puppies who come in, and many need to be bottle-fed and have special care,” Slyman said. “We work with other animal clinics in the region to get them adopted once they can be.”

Slyman said Toa looks is a strong candidate for adoption. 

“The tough little guy is doing really well,” she said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Problem On The Reservation"}]

The Wind River Indian Reservation, like many others in North America, has had a large dog population for generations. Many of these “rez dogs” run loose, with no owners.

Without a clinic like Yola’s, the numbers won’t decrease. Even with the clinic and animal lovers like Marschner and a half-dozen volunteers, it’s a constant and expensive challenge.

“A lot of the houses on the reservation don’t have fences, so the dogs aren’t contained,” Marschner said. “So that’s part of the problem. If we find a dog we think may be lost, we post them on Pet Finder.”

Another huge factor is unwanted animals being abandoned, though Marschner is quick to note that people in Riverton and Lander turn their dogs loose on the reservation, too. 

“It’s not just a tribal problem,” she said.

Kisandra Roberts of Kinnear has been a Yola’s volunteer for about four years, after leaving a Lander animal hospital where she’d worked for 14 years. 

Roberts said often people don’t own the animals in their neighborhood, but they feel badly and want to help if dogs have puppies under their porch or in their sheds.

 "Before they know it, people can have 10 or 20 dogs,” she said. “And each female can have about 20 puppies a year. Kids will bring home a puppy and say they want to keep it when it’s young and cute. But when they’re no longer in the puppy stage, they’ll just kind of leave it to fend for itself.”

Roberts, who owns a rescued rez dog, said abandoned dogs “pack up” because they instinctively want to be with other like-minded dogs. She said a lot of feral dogs “absolutely won’t let us come anywhere near them.” 

Marschner said it’s a never-ending battle. 

“Mothers tend to have big litters, then they continue to have puppies,” she said. “It’s hard to find and catch many of these dogs so we can take them to a clinic and have them fixed.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Spay & Neuter Cruiser"}]

Marschner’s rescue organization has a mobile unit dubbed the “Spay & Neuter Cruiser” for clinics, but she said it’s usually more efficient to find a place in the community they’re serving.

Yola’s next mobile clinic is set for the Casper Health Fair on July 11-12. Spay and neuter clinics will also be conducted in Wheatland and also on the reservation later this month.

“Once we made the announcement in Casper, we were sold out in about an hour,” Marschner said. “That shows what the need is. We have a waiting list, but I don’t think we’ll be able to accommodate them.

“We set up like a ‘M*A*S*H*’ unit, with all of the medical supplies and equipment,” she explained. 

With no veterinary clinics or animal shelters, roaming dogs are a problem on the Wind River Indian Reservation. A Cheyenne clinic 300 miles away has rescued 3,000 stray pets from the reservation since 2017.

Daily Cartoon: Thursday, April 27, 2023

Michael P. Ramirez

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