Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Somedays it's better to just stay in bed..."}]

Darwin 6 24 23

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Saturday, June 24, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Somedays it's better just to stay in bed...

Daily Darwin: Saturday, June 24, 2023

 Somedays it's better to just stay in bed...

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Star Valley man accused of killing his wife during a drunken argument in November 2024 was found not guilty Tuesday by a jury following a six-day trial that ran a day longer than originally planned.

The closely watched case stretched through the holiday weekend before jurors ultimately returned an acquittal.

The verdict marked the latest turn in a case that has hung over western Wyoming since Jared Erickson’s wife, Tennille, was found dead in her Star Valley home in November 2024.

"We appreciate the jury's hard work on the difficult case," said Erickson's defense attorneys, Tom Fleener and Devon Peterson. 

Assistant District Attorney Blaine Nelson, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the state, declined to comment on the trial or the verdict. Multiple voicemails to the District Attorney who filed the inititial charges, Dan Itzen, were not returned. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Contentious Case Finally Reaches Jury"}]

The case had drawn attention months earlier during a contentious 

in Lincoln County Circuit Court, where prosecutors laid out the foundation of their allegations while defense attorneys pushed back hard against the state’s theory.

During those earlier hearings, prosecutors argued they believed the evidence pointed toward criminal responsibility, while the defense repeatedly characterized the case as built too heavily on assumptions and speculation.

[{"type":"text","text":"That back-and-forth carried into the trial."}]

Over six days, attorneys questioned witnesses, picked apart investigative decisions and dug into forensic details as jurors heard two very different versions of what happened inside the Ericksons’ home that night in November 2024.

At times, objections and disagreements between the attorneys slowed testimony as both sides argued over wording, evidence and how far witnesses should be allowed to go in their answers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then in Tuesday, jurors reached a unanimous conclusion: not guilty."}]

"It's hard to know what resonated most," said Fleener, "but we hope they sensed that we presented our case with honesty and integrity." 

The acquittal means Erickson will not face criminal punishment in connection with the case.

"This case has taken an emotional toll on all involved, and we hope the families and community can begin to heal," Fleener added. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Friend Calls Verdict 'So Disappointing'"}]

Among the witnesses called during the trial was Alison Penny, who said she had known Tennille Erickson “her whole life.”

Penny traveled from Jackson to Kemmerer expecting to testify early in the week, believing she would likely take the stand early in the trial. Instead, she and her husband spent much of the week holed up in a motel waiting for her to take the stand, which was pushed to Thursday.

“It’s been one of the most stressful, gut-wrenching things I’ve ever done in my life,” she said. 

“Now to have this be the outcome, I’m just so disappointed,” she added after learning Tuesday night that jurors had acquitted Erickson. 

“She was an excellent mother, she was an immaculate homemaker, a good friend, and she is missed,” Penny said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Death By Blunt Force Trauma"}]

alleged the case stemmed from a drunken argument between Jared and Tennille Erickson at their Star Valley Ranch home. 

According to court documents filed in the case, Jared Erickson called 911 on Nov. 17 and reported finding his wife unresponsive in a bedroom with blood and vomit on the bed.

Investigators later alleged Tennille Erickson spent much of the following day secluded in the room after the couple argued the night before while drinking.

Court records said Tennille sent her husband a photo showing bruising and swelling on her face along with a text asking whether she should “send these around.” 

Prosecutors also pointed to messages Tennille allegedly sent to a friend claiming her husband had beaten her.

Responding deputies and medical personnel observed bruising on Tennille Erickson’s forehead, eye and torso when they arrived at the home. Prosecutors later argued those injuries were consistent with blunt-force trauma and not an accidental fall, according to the affidavit.

Defense attorneys, however, maintained Tennille Erickson struggled with alcoholism and health issues, and argued her injuries could have resulted from falls or other non-criminal causes. 

Court records indicated Jared Erickson told investigators the couple had a volatile relationship and both had been drinking before the argument.

After a roughly seven-month investigation, Erickson was charged with manslaughter in May 2025. A year later, he maintains his innocence and has been cleared of criminal charges. 

Lincoln County Courthouse Kemmerer 7 25 23

<title>Lincoln County Jury Finds Star Valley Man Not Guilty In Wife’s Death | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After a six-day trial that spanned the Memorial Day weekend, a Lincoln County jury on Tuesday found Jared Erickson not guilty in the death of his wife. "This case has taken an emotional toll on all involved," said his defense attorney. 

Lincoln County Jury Finds Star Valley Man Not Guilty In Wife’s Death

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

A local woman is suing the Green River Police Department and Wyoming Department of Family Services officials on claims she 

 a malicious child abuse prosecution last year. She was arrested for DUI one day before her lawsuit was filed. 

 to wake her 5-year-old sister Annabelle, who lay on their babysitter's couch in Kemmerer with her pulse fading after a brutal beating.

Annabelle died hours later from injuries the girls’ babysitter, Cheri Marler, inflicted on her with her hands, feet, and a wooden spoon.

 more than a year later, and a judge sentenced Marler to life in prison without parole.

Investigators at the time observed numerous injuries on the 4-year-old as well, court documents say. 

 with her foster mother Vallory Dodson, and Dodson’s husband.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dodson was not involved in the Kemmerer incident. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Bruises And A Black Eye"}]

An evidentiary affidavit filed in December 2024 in Sweetwater County Circuit Court says the girl’s teacher in Green River voiced concerns that autumn about bruises, a black eye covered with thick makeup, and a broken arm sustained by the then-kindergarten-age girl.

The girl told Green River Police Department Detective Martha Holzgrafe that November that she’d tripped while walking. She also said she’d been hurt 

pushed on the playground, the affidavit says.

About five weeks later, the girl gave Holzgrafe another interview and said Dodson had grabbed her by the ribs and thrown her to the ground. 

By then, says a court filing from Dodson's counsel, the state had placed the girl in her teacher's home. 

Sweetwater County Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney Micaela Lira charged Dodson with felony child abuse Dec. 20, 2024, and police arrested Dodson, who was reportedly 

Lira asked the court to dismiss the charge permanently the following June. 

She says she did so to guard against re-traumatizing the child by making her testify. 

“While preparing for trial, the state met with multiple individuals, witnesses, support members for the alleged victim, and the alleged victim herself,” wrote Lira in the June 5, 2025, motion to the Sweetwater County District Court. “

"After consultations with the alleged victim’s current caregivers (I find) any form of testifying in this matter would be detrimental to the 

 of the alleged victim and may (undo) the growth and healing she has 

District Court Judge Suzannah Robinson granted Lira’s request and dismissed the case the next day.

Lira reiterated her point in a Tuesday interview, telling Cowboy State Daily that the girl was emphatic about not testifying, “because if she did, it would bring back all the memories of what happened to her when she lived there.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe echoed that."}]

“What we put in the motion is accurate,” he said. “It wasn’t something we did lightly. There are rare occasions where that’s actually the case — where testifying is absolutely worse than what would have happened (otherwise). You know, than getting justice in this particular case.”

The prosecutors filed that motion to dismiss the charge about one year before the Wyoming Legislature passed a law allowing children in cases of violence to testify via a video link and bring comfort objects or a therapy dog into the courtroom with them.  

Now Dodson is suing the city of Green River, the Wyoming Department of Family Services, and various officials, saying authorities undertook her arrest and prosecution without probable cause and violated her rights.

Her civil complaint alleges a counterpoint to Lira’s motion, saying that, at least in DFS’s administrative handling of the incident, the child abuse case against Dodson lacked substance. 

The complaint says investigators didn’t request the girl’s medical records until months after filing the charge, and that multiple doctors opined that the girl’s broken arm was consistent with an injury sustained from falling.

The expert Dodson hired in her own case, Dr. Wade Jensen, reportedly said the break was most consistent with “a fall from a standing height.” 

The complaint says the emergency room doctor who'd tended the girl's broken arm did not report any abuse.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Little Did He Know"}]

Dodson’s attorney Jason Gay filed the civil complaint on her behalf in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming on May 11.

Gay didn’t know at the time, he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday, that Dodson had been arrested on suspicion of driving drunk with a toddler in her car one day earlier.

“That was a coincidence in timing,” said Gay Tuesday. “The lawsuit had been pending for a while.”

He’d sent the state and the city drafts of the complaint before its filing, and before that arrest, Gay added.

As for the DUI charge, Gay noted that his client is 30, saw her now-dropped child abuse case spread via the media, and after a “long, drawn-out process… ultimately dismissed.”

He pointed to her relative lack of criminal history before the felony case was filed and the media attention followed. 

“And I think you’re seeing the impact that that can have on a person,” Gay added.

Dodson remained in the Sweetwater County Detention Center on a $30,000 bond as of Tuesday, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. Court documents claim she rear-ended a Toyota 4Runner while driving drunk in Rock Springs.

A woman in the 4Runner was temporarily hospitalized, and Dodson at first faced the felony of DUI causing a serious bodily injury – which carries a penalty of up to a decade in prison.

But Lira dropped that charge upon the realization that the victim’s injuries weren't serious enough to carry the charge, court documents say.

Still, Dodson faces three remaining charges of DUI with a child passenger, improperly buckling a child under 9 and following another vehicle too closely.

Dodson pleaded not guilty to those three charges May 20. She could face up to a year in prison and fines if convicted.

The alleged crash happened two days after Dodson pleaded guilty for breach of peace – in a case where she was originally charged in March with domestic battery, on claims she attacked her husband with his wristwatch after an argument about his inability to cook quinoa.

She had received six months' unsupervised probation in that case, with the threat of jail time if she failed probation.  

Dodson’s lawsuit accuses Green River Police Department officials of 

It accuses DFS officials of exacerbating that detention by disregarding evidence that didn’t support “their theory of abuse,” and it accuses investigators from both agencies of advancing a malicious prosecution against Dodson.

It also accuses DFS officials of abuse of process and violating Dodson’s rights.

It accuses officials from both agencies of conspiring against Dodson to interfere with her imminent adoption of the girl.

The civil complaint says Dodson took the 6-year-old girl to the emergency room on Oct. 17, 2024, due to pain in the girl’s right arm.

At that time, the girl had indicated another child at school pulled her arm, the complaint says. Dodson had been the girl’s foster parent and was finalizing her adoption of both that girl and the girl’s other, surviving sister.

The complaint says the doctor diagnosed the girl with an arm fracture. Because Dodson was a foster parent, the doctor reportedly contacted DFS to tell the agency about the diagnosis and gain authorization to perform a surgery on the girl.

One month later, Holzgrafe responded to the elementary school to investigate the girl’s black eye.

The girl said her eye was injured while she was playing with a dog, “and the Wyoming Department of Family Services later confirmed this to be the case,” the document says.

[{"type":"text","text":"School staff also told Holzgrafe about the girl’s October arm injury."}]

Both the girl and Dodson said the girl had injured her arm while walking home from the bus.

“Holzgrafe chose not to preserve the video and it was deleted by the school district,” the complaint alleges.

For a few weeks after the judge dismissed Dodson’s criminal case, Wyoming was still waging administrative child protection proceedings against her, court documents say.

But that ended that August when DFS declared its investigators’ findings “unsubstantiated,” the complaint adds. 

Dodson’s lawsuit accuses six people, all in their official capacities, of wrongdoing, as well as the city of Green River.

[{"type":"text","text":"Those six are:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS Director Korin Schmidt"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Green River Police Chief Shaun Sturlaugson"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS social worker Victoria Collett"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS special investigator Cassie Torres"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS quality improvement manager Lisa Bauman-Brown."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The case is ongoing. "}]

20240526 green river 2088

<title>Green River Woman Sues Cops, DFS For Malicious Prosecution In Child Abuse Case | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Green River woman is suing police and child protection officials for malicious prosecution. Prosecutors charged her with child abuse, then dismissed the charge seven months later, saying they did not want to re-traumatize the child in court.

Green River Woman Sues Cops, DFS For Malicious Prosecution In Child Abuse Case

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Government & Politics

Executive

A proposed 12-month moratorium on data centers in Cheyenne was rejected on a 9-1 City Council vote after nearly four hours of emotional, and at times angry, testimony Tuesday night. 

The discussion pitted data center workers happy with good jobs against local residents who are skeptical — and some fearful — of the impacts that rapid data center growth brings to the city. 

About half of those who spoke were in favor of the moratorium with the other half opposing it.

Throughout the marathon debate, Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins called for respect from the audience more than once.

“There are two sides to this story,” he said. “Let’s be respectful to both sides.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Union Workers Weigh In"}]

Marcie Kindred, representing Wyoming’s AFLCIO, the state’s labor federation, said a troubling narrative began to emerge after last week’s city planning commission meeting where the moratorium was discussed. 

The city’s Public Service Committee also took up the moratorium during a May 18 meeting and decided 

 on the moratorium either way to the council.

“The community on one side and pro data center big-tech billionaires and unions on the other,” Kindred said.

Union members are also Cheyenne residents, she said, adding they are taxpayers who live here and love Wyoming.

“Our opposition to this moratorium is not a broad endorsement of AI,” she added.

She addressed concerns about artificial intelligence and the threats that data centers pose to workers before saying that fight belongs in Washington, D.C., not in a city council meeting.

Do we want economic development done right, under Wyoming standards, or do we hand it off to someone with a rubber stamp and no safeguards? she asked.

“These workers are here today because they know what a pause really means,” she said about the strong turnout to oppose the moratorium. “It means in a few months they’ll be back out on the road answering the nearest work calls, sleeping in a hotel instead of in their own beds.”

These data center projects have allowed people to put down roots and dream a little, she said, adding that, “A moratorium does not protect our community.”

Matthew Miles introduced himself as a pipefitter from Cheyenne and said most of the men in the union he belongs to he met in South Dakota.

“Until Meta ramped up and brought all of us home, all of these guys were in a completely other state away from their families,” he said. “A moratirum will force these companies to go somewhere else. 

[{"type":"text","text":"\"All it will do it hurt the local workers you see tonight.”"}]

Truett Thompson, president of the Local 415 electrical workers union, said a pause on data centers means a pause on economic growth.

“We believe we’re at a crossroads at the future of our community’s infrastructure,” he said, adding that members of his union are enjoying good-paying jobs because of the local data center buildout.

David Richardson called a moratorium “a stop sign in the road for the middle class.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Paid To Be Here?"}]

Not everyone was convinced the workers represented the broader community.

A Cheyenne resident who identified himself only as Adam clutched a yellow index card with a shaky hand.

“Everyone here who is opposing this moratorium are literally being paid to do so,” he told the council.

Adam added that as soon as the projects are finished, the workers will be gone. He referred to the data center workers as “transient residents,” saying if we had local workers, we would not need a huge proposed 

“The permanent residents by and large do not want these data centers,” he said.

Others countered that the industry has already created long-term local careers.

Shawn Broad, an employee of Microsoft who received training at Microsoft’s data center academy, assured the council he was not paid to be at the council meeting. 

He said he grew up in Cheyenne and immediately left because he didn’t see a future there. A job at Microsoft allowed him to return to his roots, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Quality Of Life"}]

For many speakers, the discussion came down to competing visions of Cheyenne’s future and what kind of quality of life residents want to preserve.

Ryan Blue, a Cheyenne resident and data center technician, said that his data center job "financially changed my life.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Your whole life anymore runs on a data center,” he added."}]

Elizabeth Marvin said she fought “tooth and nail” to get back to her home state of Wyoming, yet the Wyoming she moved back to is not the Wyoming she grew up in.

“I brought my kids with me,” Marvin said through tears. “As soon as I got back, I learned that there were data centers going in south of my neighborhood.”

Marvin likened Cheyenne’s data center boom to the uranium mining boom in Jeffrey City, which lasted from the late 1950s through the 1970s.

Jeffrey City grew large enough to support an Olympic-sized swimming pool, Marvin said. “Then, the workers ran away from the radiation.”

Anne Domas didn’t mask her disdain for data centers, and accused the council of being “the pimps prostituting our resources.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Pause Is Not A Stop"}]

Supporters of the moratorium repeatedly emphasized that a moratorium would be temporary, not permanent.

Jimmy Chiro, a candidate for a Ward 1 City Council seat, spoke in favor of the moratorium, saying a one-year pause is not asking a lot.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s not going to stop their work,” he said. “It’s a pause.”"}]

Richard Lyle suggested a moratorium won’t slow AI technology and will only drive it offshore.

Several people said their biggest frustration has been what they see as a lack of information and transparency when it comes to data center development.

“The community is a little scared over what’s been happening, and that’s because we’re not getting answers,” said Cheyenne resident Heather Madrid.

Dominic Syracuse, who introduced himself as a comedian and positive psychologist, spoke about the existential threat of artificial intelligence.

“Unfortunately, nothing I have to say today is at all funny or positive,” he told the council.

Syracuse said he leads a workshop across the country called “Staying Human in the Age of AI.”

He said Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, has given AI a one-in-five chance of creating human extinction.

If we continue data building center rapidly, we are facing a severe existential threat, Syracuse said.

Cheyenne resident Michelle Cobb, who works in the construction industry and admitted she has profited from data centers, spoke in favor of a moratorium “so we know exactly what is coming to Cheyenne.”

Resident Patricia McCoy suggested the moratorium was an opportunity for the council to effectively communicate with residents.

“The people who put you in your position are terrified,” Elizabeth Marvin said. “That should mean something. We don’t want to be Silicone Valley.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Chris Camargo pleaded with the council to approve the moratorium."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“That’s all they’re asking for,” he said."}]

Exie Brown, who is running for state House District 9 from Cheyenne, spoke about the national security aspect to data centers, saying, “There is a risk to having all your assets in one location.”

Having so many data centers in one concentrated area increases vulnerability, he said, and makes Cheyenne a target-rich environment for bad actors.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Before The Discussion …"}]

Tensions over data centers surfaced even before the moratorium agenda item came up.

Several residents objected to a proposed rezoning classification affecting land in the Cheyenne Business Park and Campstool Business Park.

The land in question is currently zoned as light industrial, heavy industrial and community business. Changing the zoning to Business Park would relax landscaping requirements, a move that drew expressions of mistrust from the crowd.

“Why are we fast-tracking this rezoning while the moratorium is still on the table?” asked Charles Miller.

[{"type":"text","text":"He requested the rezoning decision be postponed."}]

“Rezoning anything is a bad idea right now,” said a woman who identified herself as Christine.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I don’t trust any of this,” said a Cheyenne resident named Lilia."}]

“We’ve got data centers knocking at the door,” said Jesson White. “Not to bring that up early, but that’s why we’re all here.”

The mayor explained that with the business park areas zoned as they are now, day care centers aren’t allowed in the area. If you want other support businesses for folks in the business parks, this would allow those businesses to be there.

The council has been working for a few years to make it easier to allow other types of businesses to set up shop in these business parks, Collins said.

“So it’s strictly coincidence,” Jesson replied, eliciting laughter from the audience.

[{"type":"text","text":"The mayor called for order."}]

“Now we want to relax the rules?” White said. “That’s ridiculous. That’s absurd.”

[{"type":"text","text":"People clapped as White sat down."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Again, the mayor called for order."}]

A 12-month moratorium on data centers in Cheyenne was rejected on a 9-1 City Council vote after hours of emotional, and at times angry, testimony Tuesday night. “The people who put you in your position are terrified,” one resident told the council. 

Daily Darwin: Saturday, June 24, 2023

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