One More For The Road

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

<title>One More For The Road: Wednesday, May 31, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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One More For The Road: Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Julie Mankin

Crime & Courts

A Wyoming barrel racer was stunned to learn that the 17-year-old girl accused of stabbing three horses during a major rodeo event in Las Vegas over the weekend was the same rider who tried to borrow one of her horses.

“About a month ago, I got a message from a girl asking if I had a horse she could run,” said Lora Nichols of Pavillion. “I said no, and she kept asking about each of my specific horses. 

“This weekend I looked to see if it was the same girl they arrested. It was! It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too. It could have been me just as easily.”

Nichols, who has earned more than $400,000 competing on the half-brother brother of one of the stabbed horses, said she’s especially horrified by the attack.

Along with Nichols, Wyoming’s rodeo community is shocked and appalled by the Tonya Harding-like violent rampage that left the three barrel racing horses stabbed multiple times.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Happened"}]

Las Vegas police report that the 17-year-old barrel racer was arrested in connection the attack on the horses of competitors.

The girl is accused of stabbing each of the horses multiple times inside their stalls during 

the NBHA Professional’s Choice Vegas Super Show at the South Point Equestrian Center.

The attack came just hours after one of the horses — a 6-year-old gelding named Saaul Good — had carried 20-year-old Hailey Krahenbuhl to a first-place paycheck of $1,805. 

The horse, which Krahenbuhl calls “Sully,” has shattered arena records this season and racked up $238,388 in earnings in less than four years competing. 

“Sully was stabbed multiple times last night,” Krahenbuhl posted to her Facebook page on Saturday. “I have no words. He is stitched up and in recovery.” 

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reports that officers received a report at around 2:07 a.m. Saturday that a horse had been injured inside a South Point barn. 

When officers arrived, they learned three horses had been “intentionally injured with a sharp object” believed to be a knife, police say.

Veterinarians reportedly cleaned and sutured deep blade lacerations to Sully’s flank and shoulder. 

Another competitor named Keira Weisbart confirmed on social media that her horse, Rocket, was stabbed three times and had other “stab attempts around his body.” 

That horse was reportedly treated and released at the scene.

A third stabbed horse, however, underwent emergency surgery to repair muscle tissue damage. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Detail’s Ordeal"}]

Southern California barrel racer Arielle Phillips owns that third horse, a mare she calls Detail was stabbed multiple times.

, Phillips described the arrested teen as “a crazy obsessed stalker who has been following me on social media for a long time, obsessing over Detail, obsessing over meeting me.”

Phillips said she’d arrived back at the South Point barn to find the suspect hosing off Detail’s wounds.

“Cameras verified her entering our stalls,” wrote Phillips. “I can’t even put into words the pain I feel for my mare and for Hailey’s Sully.”

She said the attack has also affected her horse.

“Detail is traumatized,” Phillips wrote. “Every time she runs away from the approach of my hand, I burst into tears. This is my best friend. An innocent sweet horse was brutally tortured for no reason.”

While all three horses are expected to recover, they are sidelined for the near future and aren’t able to compete.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Champion Lineage"}]

Krahenbuhl, the daughter of a Las Vegas landscaper who grew up about 15 minutes from The Strip, had plans to hit the rodeo road with Sully — whose sire Winner’s Version has produced earners of more than $7 million — and make an NFR run in 2027. 

“We were a match from the beginning and my dreams became reality, all thanks to him,” she wrote prior to the attack from Globe Life Field during the $3 million American Rodeo. 

 to help with at veterinary for all three of the horses.

Nichols said she knows those other girls and is heartbroken for them and their horses.

“I’ve competed alongside Hailey a lot, and she’s an amazing human being,” said Nichols. “I think of the raw emotion and just the blood, sweat and tears she’s put in ­— you know, how hard she’s worked to get there. 

“When I heard it was her horse, I was just sick to my stomach.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, detectives located the suspect at a nearby hotel and took her into custody.

“She was transported to Clark County Juvenile Hall, where she was booked on 12 counts of willful or malicious killing, maiming or torturing of an animal and three counts of felony malicious destruction of private property over $5,000,” investigators told KTLA 5 Morning News.

Because of her age, official law enforcement sources have not identified the suspected publicly.

Veteran barrel racers have over the years heard rare rumors of winning horses being poisoned, but a brazen rash of stabbings is a first. 

Nichols said the incident makes her think of a made-for-TV movie in which the stalker ends up booked for murder. 

She’s also grateful the suspect wasn’t targeting the girls themselves.

“I just think we’re sheltered from that so much in our world,” added barrel racer and Gillette College rodeo coach racer Casey Rae Sellers. “The youth in our industry are pretty dang good kids. This is so out-of-character for the Western industry.”

Horses stabbed Krahenbuhl and Sully at The American 6 1 26

<title>Wyoming Barrel Racer Says She Was Approached By Alleged Horse-Stabber | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming barrel racer was stunned to learn that the teen girl accused of stabbing three horses in Las Vegas over the weekend tried to borrow one of her horses last month. “It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too,” she said.

Wyoming Barrel Racer Says She Was Approached By Alleged Horse-Stabber

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Courts

The family of a woman killed by a distracted driver in downtown Sheridan a year ago said they feel slighted by what they call a lenient sentence handed down to the driver.

David Vincent Johnson, 34, was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of supervised probation and fines in Sheridan County Circuit Court on Friday after a nearly four-hour sentencing hearing.

The sentencing happened a year and a day after Johnson 

, who had been legally crossing in the crosswalk when Johnson hit her with his pickup.

Fitzsimmons had been visiting her daughter Kate Gladdin and husband Nate, from Australia, when she was struck.

She died of blunt force trauma to her head after being thrown more than 7 feet by the vehicle.

Johnson, who was not impaired at the time of the accident, was charged with vehicular manslaughter, which is punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $2,000, or both.

In Wyoming, vehicular manslaughter can be either a misdemeanor or felony, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

To be considered a felony, the driver has to be driving recklessly or be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"High Bar"}]

Since Johnson was sober, as Gladdin explained in an earlier interview, meeting the standard of “reckless” is a high bar.

Johnson’s sentence was in accordance with the plea deal he agreed to, as did Gladdin and her father, Vince, to avoid the pain of a trial and to protect her mother’s dignity, Gladdin said.

However, Gladdin said she hoped that Sheridan County Circuit Court Judge Sheryl Bunting would have punished Johnson to the full extent of the law, as is her discretion given his past criminal history related to his driving.

At the time of the accident, Johnson was on probation for domestic battery and evading police in 2024, according to court records.

He pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 90 days in jail with 88 days suspended and a year probation with six months supervised, as well as under $1,000 in fines.

Johnson also had a DUI in December 2023 in which he crashed his vehicle, and a handful of other driving violations that warranted his designation as a high-risk driver by the state of Wyoming, requiring him to carry SR-22 insurance.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Only Deeper Grief’"}]

Gladdin and Vince felt their impact statements during the hearing largely fell on deaf ears, and they expressed their thoughts in a statement to Cowboy State Daily.

Vince, in particular, feels his words were taken out of context by Bunting’s comments in her closing statement.

"In the closing remarks at the end of the sentencing, I was quoted as saying there is no penalty that will compensate our family for our loss,” he said. “That is true. But the request that came after it was left out.

“My statement asked the court to 'impose the maximum penalty possible against this perpetrator, both for his deep and extensive record, that he abused his grant of parole when he killed my wife, and to make an example to other drivers that they must respect, be cautious and aware of pedestrians.’

He concluded that, “Life is too precious to be cavalier about the safety of others.”

Taking him out of context implies that the sentence did not matter to the family. It did, he clarified.

Gladdin said that the 60-day sentence does not bring them comfort, only “deeper grief.”

“She lived by the rules and was killed by a man with a long history of breaking them, right up to the moment he killed her,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hopes To Close Gaps In Law"}]

Gladdin and her family are using their experience as an opportunity to change what they consider to be gaps in Wyoming laws when it comes to charging vehicular manslaughter as a misdemeanor.

The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee voted unanimously in May to ask the Legislative Service Office draft perfunctory legislation based on the points raised to discuss at their next committee meeting in Casper on Aug. 10-11.

This includes amending distracted driving to include texting or phone use that results in deaths, driving on a suspended or revoked license, fleeing law enforcement that leads to a fatality and to consider repeat traffic offenses such as prior reckless driving convictions for those who kill a person while behind the wheel.

Gladdin said she feels like strengthening the laws will hopefully prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies.

“We are left to wonder how this can be what the court called a teaching and learning moment for everybody, when the perpetrator once again avoids any real accountability for his crimes,” she wrote in her statement. “This time for killing a beloved wife and mother- and shattering our family forever.

Johnson’s attorney, Anna Malmberg with the Sheridan County Public Defender’s Office, did not respond to a request for comment by the time this story was published.

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<title>Family Says 60-Day Sentence For Driver Who Killed Woman Brings Them ‘Deeper Grief’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The family of a woman killed by a distracted driver in downtown Sheridan a year ago said they feel slighted by the 60-day sentence he got Friday. It brings “deeper grief,” not closure, said the woman’s daughter.

Family Says 60-Day Sentence For Driver Who Killed Woman Brings Them ‘Deeper Grief’

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Kate Meadows

Public Safety

A 56-year-old Centennial, Wyoming, man died after slipping on steep terrain while hiking near the Falls Overlook in Albany County.

Michael Werkeiser was descending into a narrow crevice when he fell into Mullen Creek, according to a Saturday report from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office. 

Werkeiser is believed to have suffered a head injury during the Friday fall, which resulted in him becoming unconscious. He became trapped in the fast-flowing water.

Another member of his hiking group immediately went into the creek after him in an attempt to save Werkeiser, the sheriff’s office reports.

Albany County deputies were dispatched to the Falls Overlook area on Forest Service Road 307 at 7:47 p.m. Friday after receiving a 911 text message.

Werkeiser was still alive at that time, but was unconscious and having difficulty breathing, the text said. Emergency communication continued via text message because of the remote location and lack of cellular service.

Members of the Albany County Sheriff's Office's High Angle Rescue Team, Albany County Search and Rescue, Laramie Fire Department and Centennial Volunteer Fire Department coordinated a complex rescue effort. 

Responders rappelled about 30 feet into Mullen Creek to reach and recover both Werkeiser and the hiking companion who had gone into the creek after him.

Werkeiser was pronounced dead at the scene, and the person in the water with him was released after refusing medical treatment.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He Would Give You the Shirt Off His Back'"}]

People took to social media following the accident to remember Werkeiser as an adventurer and a “salt-of-the-earth” person.

For Teresa and Kirk Strom, memories of Werkeiser are forever tied to one of the most unusual days of their lives — their wedding atop Devils Tower in 1994.

The Stroms had met Werkeiser through a tight-knit group of rock climbers in Laramie in the early 1990s. 

When the couple decided to get married, they skipped the traditional church ceremony and opted instead for a low-budget adventure befitting a group of recent college graduates. They climbed Devils Tower and handed out flyers inviting friends to join them on the summit.

“We ended up with about 18 or 19 people on top,” Teresa Strom recalled. “Mike was one of the friends that summited Devil’s Tower with us.”

A local minister agreed to climb up and perform the ceremony, turning the mountaintop gathering into what Strom remembers as a remarkable celebration among friends. 

Werkeiser was there for all of it, along with several friends who had traveled from Pennsylvania.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It was a pretty big deal,” she said."}]

Strom described Mike as the kind of person who never hesitated to help others. 

“He was a good guy. He’d give you the shirt off his back,” she said. 

Even when years passed between visits, reconnecting with him felt effortless, she said, adding that “there could be a lapse in seeing him, but you’d never feel that distance.”

Over the years, Werkeiser joined the Stroms on numerous outdoor adventures. They fished, camped, mountain biked and snowboarded together. 

“Mostly, he just hung out with us,” Strom said with a laugh. “Mike was up for anything.”

Werkeiser originally came to Wyoming as a truck driver, but quickly found a community among the state’s climbers and outdoor enthusiasts, Stom said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Before long, he decided to stay. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“I think he fell in love with Wyoming and found his home,” she said."}]

After learning of his death, Strom found herself digging through old boxes and trunks, searching for photographs from that long-ago wedding on top of Devils Tower. 

She said she plans to share them with his family — snapshots of a friend who was there for one of life’s biggest moments and who remained part of their circle for decades afterward.

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<title>Wyoming Hikers Unable To Resuscitate Centennial Man Who Died After Fall Into River | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 56-year-old Centennial man died Friday after slipping on steep terrain and falling into Mullen Creek in Albany County. He is believed to have suffered a head injury in the fall and then became trapped in the fast-flowing water.

Wyoming Hikers Unable To Resuscitate Centennial Man Who Died After Fall Into River

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

A Torrington family is in shock after finding their mutilated dogs partially submerged in the North Platte River outside of Torrington.

Angelica Garcia told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that two rottweilers owned by her parents had gotten loose from their home Friday and hours later were found dead by a woman and her son who were walking by a popular fishing spot on the river.

Garcia said the discovery of the two dogs named Django and Hera left her stunned.

"The top of Django's head was gone and Hera's neck and chest were gone," Garcia said.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They were family dogs. I trusted them around my kids,\" she added."}]

Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor confirmed Monday that his office has an open investigation into the incident. 

He declined to comment on whether investigators have determined a cause of death, whether any suspects or persons of interest have been identified, or what evidence investigators have gathered, citing the active nature of the case.

Garcia said her parents last saw the dogs late Friday morning after letting them outside near their Torrington home.

The two rottweilers, a brother and sister who were both nearly 6 years old, had occasionally gotten loose before and were familiar to many people in town, Garcia said.

When her father realized the dogs had not returned, he began searching for them. A short time later, the family learned the dogs had been found dead near the North Platte River.

[{"type":"text","text":"Questions Remain "}]

Garcia said her family believes the dogs were unlawfully killed and wants investigators to thoroughly examine what happened.

She said relatives have searched for information, spoken with people in the area where the dogs were found and tried to learn whether anyone witnessed the incident.

[{"type":"text","text":"So far, she said, they have found no eyewitnesses."}]

"We're drawing a blank as to what happened," Garcia said. "Or why it happened." She added that on top of being concerned the dogs were shot, she's concerned "it happened in the city." 

 that accuses authorities of not doing enough to investigate the deaths.

"Whoever did this brutally murdered these dogs, took their collars and drug them off and dumped their bodies in the river," the petition reads.

"There is a lead and law enforcement is refusing to look further and do their job," it reads.

The Torrington Police Department also responded after the dogs were found, according to Garcia. 

She said city police helped direct the case to the sheriff's office because the location where the dogs were discovered fell under county jurisdiction.

Torrington Police Chief Matt Johnson did not return a request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"A Gruesome Discovery"}]

Garcia began to choke up when she described the condition of the dogs and added the collars on the dogs were missing.

[{"type":"text","text":"The family believes the dogs were killed with a shotgun. "}]

One question repeatedly raised online is whether Wyoming law allows people to shoot dogs under certain circumstances.

 does permit dogs to be killed if they are running livestock and the livestock has been injured or is threatened with injury. The law also shields the person who kills the dog from liability if the danger or damage can be shown.

So far, however, authorities have not publicly indicated whether livestock played any role in the deaths of Django and Hera.

The dogs were known to "get out," said Garcia, "and they would kind of roam around, but nobody ever really made a big deal about it." 

"They would just call the dog catcher or local PD, and they would tend to joke about it, like they're just really nice dogs, and you know, even when they picked them up, the dog catcher was appalled at what happened, because she knew them, you know," she said.

Garcia added that she doesn't think the dogs were bothering livestock, "They would never go after cattle or anything like that." 

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<title>Torrington Family Says Rottweilers Were Mutilated And Dumped In The River  | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Torrington family is in shock after finding their mutilated dogs partially submerged in the North Platte River. Angelica Garcia said one dog's head was removed and the other was missing its neck and chest. "They were family dogs," she said.

Torrington Family Says Rottweilers Were Mutilated And Dumped In The River 

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

Less than a month after a man was apparently killed by a grizzly in Glacier National Park in Montana, there were reports of another possible bear attack on a hiker on Thursday.

A “surprise encounter involving a hiker and a bear occurred on the Grinnell Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park,” park spokeswoman Autumn Sifuentes stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily on Friday.

“National Park Service personnel and emergency services responded to the incident. The Grinnell Glacier Trail is temporarily closed and will reopen when deemed appropriate by park staff,” she added.

There was no further information available about the species or size of the bear, or whether the hiker suffered any injuries.

Hiker Devin Dufrene described encountering a distraught man who was screaming about a “bear attack” 

Although he and his sister attempted to get the man to calm down, “he continued running and screaming,” according to SFGate. “Knowing there was an attack up-trail and now a bear approaching from the opposite direction, we decided to ascend up the cliffside and wait for the bear to pass.”

A little later, Dufrene told SFGate that they saw park rangers going in the direction of the reported attack.

In early May, Glacier Park reported its first fatal bear attack since 1998.

Florida resident Anthony Pollio, 33 was reported missing May 4. On May 6, his body was found in a densely wooded area roughly 50 feet from the trail he’d apparently been hiking on.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Busy Year Already"}]

May is usually the first month of widespread grizzly and black bear activity. This year, it’s been a busy month for bear attacks.

On May 4, two brothers were severely injured when they were attacked by a female grizzly with cubs near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

Also this month, a black bear hunter in Idaho shot and killed a grizzly when it charged him and his son. Wildlife agents deemed the shooting a legitimate case of self-defense.

And on Monday near Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, a man running on a forested trail was attacked and injured by a female black bear with two cubs, 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘The Men Mocked Me’"}]

Outdoor adventurer Michael Hodges was photographing grizzlies in the Glacier Park backcountry on the day that Pollio’s body was discovered about 15 miles away.

Later, he was on the same trail where Thursday’s alleged bear attack was reported.

“I was up on the trail the week of May 6 and saw many grizzlies,” he stated in a text message to Cowboy State Daily.

“I warned hikers from California and Texas at the trailhead that there was an unusual number of griz, and to be extra alert,” stated Hodges, a novelist and internet personality.

“The men mocked me, the women in the group listened,” he added.

Contrary to popular perceptions, grizzlies in Glacier Park aren’t meaner than those elsewhere, bear experts told Cowboy State Daily.

Rather, the area’s thick vegetation and rugged landscape increase the chances of hikers and bears surprising each other at close range.

“For the most part, if bears hear you, see you or smell you, they don’t want to have anything to do with you,” Canadian human-bear conflict prevention expert Kim Titchener said.

She’s hiked in Glacier Park and said she can attest to how conditions there can make it more difficult for bears to sense people approaching.

She added that the landscape around Squamish, where the runner was attacked by a black bear is similar.

“It’s got lots of thick vegetation,” said Titchener, the founder of the Bear Safety and More organization.

And people shouldn’t take for granted that black bears can also be dangerous if they’re surprised at close range, she added.

Retired ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody, who frequently hikes solo in grizzly country, agreed that hiking in Glacier Park demands extra alertness.

“Encounters can happen at just a few yards away” if hikers aren’t paying keen attention, Neal said.

“It’s a high-quality habitat for bears. It’s better habitat for bears than Yellowstone is” and tends to attract a younger crowd, he said.

“Those younger hikers go barreling up those trails without paying that much attention,” Neal said.

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<title>Glacier Park Reports Second Bear Attack Less Than A Month After Man Killed | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Less than a month after a man was apparently killed by a grizzly in Glacier National Park, there were reports of another possible bear attack on a hiker on Thursday. It was a “surprise encounter involving a hiker and a bear,” said a park official.

One More For The Road: Wednesday, May 31, 2023

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