A woman who helped cover up her boyfriend’s murder and mutilation of his romantic rival in Laramie last year has pleaded guilty to interfering with police and been sentenced to a year in jail.
But Erin Brittany Wade already had served 323 days in jail, which the Laramie Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Sanford credited against her total sentence, leaving 42 days yet to serve as of Wednesday’s sentencing.
Sanford also imposed $970 in fines, court costs and victim’s compensation.
The court convicted her of interfering with a peace officer after her guilty plea.
At The Bar
According to the evidentiary affidavit filed in the case, Wade was dating Hunter Fulton, and the pair were staying briefly in Laramie, Wyoming.
They went out to a bar June 24, 2022, and bought cocaine, according to Wade’s police interview.
Other witnesses said that Wade walked up to Mathew Caggiano, a construction worker who lived in Idaho but was on a job in Laramie, and kissed him.
Fulton glowered throughout the evening, witnesses said.
At some point Caggiano ended up in the couple’s room at the Gas Lite Inn motel, but Wade at first denied this to police.
When a police interviewer confronted her and said she wasn’t being truthful, Wade then said Caggiano was trying to rape her at knifepoint, with zip ties and duct tape.
Police never found duct tape, a knife or zip ties.
The main bloodstain from the 9 mm gunshot wound in Caggiano’s head was near the motel room door, which Fulton’s prosecutor cited as evidence that he was either entering or exiting the room when shot.
Boyfriend Gets 26-30 Years
Fulton also was sentenced this week for manslaughter, mutilation of a dead body and possessing a deadly weapon with unlawful intent in a Tuesday hearing in Albany County District Court. He will serve the next 26-30 years in prison under his sentencing terms.
After Fulton shot Caggiano, he spent four days accumulating tools at hardware stores, drinking alcohol in the motel room and trying to cut up Caggiano’s body, which was found in a black bag in the hotel bathroom, court documents say.
When police found the body, they also found a saw under it with human tissue on the saw. There was a cross-way slice across Caggiano’s back and another on his thigh, according to court documents.
Wade told police she left soon after the murder.
However, surveillance footage at Ace Hardware showed Wade and Fulton holding hands as they bought the tools together, according to court documents.
Contact Clair McFarland at Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com
