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

<title>You Still Here? Wednesday, September 20, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Wednesday, September 20, 2023

 We have no idea what she's saying but it's fair to say she does not appreciate the joke...

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

The prosecution of a former Gillette Little League board member and youth sports coach on suspicion of 13 felony charges relating to possession of child pornography has come as more than a shock for Brooke Deaton.

Not only is she the president of the Little League Board of Trustees, but two of her children were coached by 41-year-old Lawrence Spradlin prior to his June 22 arrest.

“He personally coached my son in soccer, so I was shocked,” Deaton told Cowboy State Daily, adding that he also coached her daughter’s softball team.

“I never had any indications about this,” she said, adding that neither did the rest of the Little League board. “He never hugged anybody, never got close. At best, he was annoying, but he was also the first to jump in and help people.”

She also said Spradlin could be “obnoxious” at times and “was socially awkward and would say things off the wall, but never inappropriate.”

When the Gillette Little League got word of Spradlin’s arrest, he was immediately removed from the board, Deaton said, adding that he was there when she came on the board and estimates his tenure at about five or six years.

The organization also never had any complaints about him relating to inappropriateness with players.

Deaton also said that the Little League is getting a lot of people questioning if it does background checks on its board members and coaches.

“The answer to that is yes, we do background checks,” she said. In Spradlin’s case “there was nothing in there that was of concern to trigger that a crime like this was possible.”

Although Spradlin’s alleged crimes have no connection to the league, Deaton said she and other board members have been fielding questions. Most have been supportive, but others not so much.

“I wish it would’ve been money or drugs or anything,” she said. “This is the worst thing that can happen to us as a league. Some of us have five or six kids of our own that play here.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Tips"}]

The local investigation into Spradlin began June 22 when the Gillette Police Department received information from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit (ICAC).

Acting on two tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children through Yahoo!, DCI reported that Spradlin had allegedly been receiving sexually explicit material of children, including emailing it to himself, GPD Officer Julianne Koloski wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in Spradlin’s case.

The Yahoo! Tips were connected to Spradlin’s account, the affidavit says, which led investigators to find he allegedly emailed four explicit videos to himself on Feb. 20, 2026, and accessed another on March 15.

They all appeared to depict prepubescent females performing sex acts, with one that indicated it was “consensual blackmail,” the affidavit said.

Another video “showed a nude prepubescent female lying on her back,” Koloski wrote. “The girl had some sort of black strap attached around her chest, stomach and neck area.

“The girl’s legs were spread, and her knees were pulled up near her chest.”

A sexually aroused male also was in the video, penetrating the girl, the affidavit says.

A DCI agent also noted that access to the account with the alleged child sex material was from a Gillette internet service provider and accessed by a local cellphone that traced to Spradlin, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Search Warrant"}]

Gillette police then acted on a request from DCI to contact Spradlin and execute a search warrant at his home on the morning of June 24.

“Lawrence was contacted at the door … (and) confirmed his phone number, email address, phone carrier and device all matched the information matching the investigation,” the affidavit says.

“Lawrence also confirmed his device has been in his control for the entire time period in question,” the document adds.

What investigators found on his phone’s “hidden folder” would lead to more charges, Koloski wrote.

That includes nine other videos of underage girls having sex with men, along with performing other acts with themselves and with objects, the affidavit says.

“The bedrooms appeared to belong to juveniles, with bright colors and very youthful bedding and décor,” Koloski wrote.

The videos all were tagged as coming from Telegram, which “is a well-known hub for the distribution of child pornography through various chat rooms,” the affidavit said.

Overall, Spradlin faces 13 felony charges of sexual exploitation of children, each carrying a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

If convicted and given consecutive max sentences, he faces up to 130 years in prison and fines up to $130,000.

He waived his preliminary hearing in Campbell County Circuit Court, and was bound over to District Court this week.

His next court appearance is an arraignment set for July 30, at which time he’ll be asked to plead to the charges.

Lawrence Spradlin mug 7 10 26

<title>Former Gillette Little League Coach And Board Member Faces 13 Child Porn Charges | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A former Gillette Little League coach and board member could get up to 130 years in prison if convicted of 13 child pornography charges. “He personally coached my son in soccer, so I was shocked,” said the league’s president.

Former Gillette Little League Coach And Board Member Faces 13 Child Porn Charges

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

Clair McFarland

A Mexican national sentenced Tuesday to 180 days in jail for charging toward a Teton County Sheriff’s deputy with his box truck is trying to remain in the United States, his defense attorney said in court.

Ramon Gabriel Chavez Cruz, 46, pleaded no contest Tuesday in Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens’ court to one count of aggravated assault.

He was arrested the night of June 4, 2024, after waging what court documents describe as repeated attempts to ram his truck into multiple vehicles in the Snake River Canyon on U.S. Highway 89 between Alpine and Jackson.

The case affidavit, by then-Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper Mike Merritt, compiles statements by drivers and their families, who said they maneuvered in reverse and swerved into barrow ditches to escape Chavez Cruz’s head-on chases.

“The individual in the vehicle that attempted to collide with us deliberately crossed the centerline at a high rate of speed, targeted our vehicle, and attempted to kill my family,” the affidavit relates from the account of Roy Walters, who said he’d been in the back seat of a family vehicle that night while his son Eamonn drove, and Roy’s wife, Kate, sat in the front passenger seat. “By the grace of God and my son’s quick reactions the collision was barely avoided.”

The prosecutor, Teton County Deputy Attorney Claire Fuller, emphasized at Chavez Cruz’s sentencing hearing that only one of Chavez Cruz’s many, alleged head-on charges happened in Teton County.

The rest happened in Lincoln County, where County Attorney Spencer Allred is waiting to prosecute Chavez Cruz “to the full extent of the law,” Allred told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

Chavez Cruz struck a plea agreement with the Teton County Attorney’s Office, under which he pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated assault. That’s a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Fuller agreed to drop three more misdemeanors, including DUI.

And Owens, who accepted the agreement, sentenced Chavez Cruz to a split sentence: 180 days in jail followed by three years’ probation – with the threat of a two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half-year prison sentence remaining if he fails probation.

The 222 days Chavez Cruz has already spent in jail awaiting Tuesday’s hearing eclipsed his sentence and he’s to be released from Teton County. The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office expects to take him into custody soon, a jail deputy confirmed to Cowboy State Daily Thursday.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s Allred’s understanding as well."}]

Chavez Cruz faces potentially much harsher consequences in Lincoln County, where Allred has filed eight counts of aggravated assault against him – one for each person he allegedly charged with his truck. Allred also filed a ninth count, misdemeanor reckless driving, which is punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.  

It’s unclear what role, if any, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plays in this case. The agency declined to discuss Chavez Cruz’s immigration status, writing in a Friday email, “ICE cannot provide any information on this individual.”

Chavez Cruz has a special kind of immigration visa indicating he’s been a crime victim, Trefonas told the court.

“He’s a victim of some incredibly severe, traumatic physical crimes. And so were his wife and children,” said Trefonas. “That all led up to these events: working 24/7; having terror, trauma in his life – and some drug use.”

Trefonas said Chavez Cruz has accepted responsibility in the Teton County case. He’s from Oaxaca, Mexico, and “he’s in a legal process to remain in the United States lawfully, irrespective of these charges,” said Trefonas.

Chavez Cruz told Owens, “For every impacted person in my case, I feel really, really sorry for what happened. I’m willing to take every step to fix the situation – here and Lincoln County.”

While nearly all the drivers Chavez Cruz is accused of chasing with his box truck evaded and escaped, Eric Leonard did not.

Merritt responded to the canyon area at about 10:42 p.m. the night of June 4, 2024, while the two counties’ dispatchers received at least a dozen 911 calls about a violent driver, the affidavit says.

Vehicle descriptions ranged from RV to “semi-type truck” and the culprit vehicle was identified as a box truck registered to Chavez Cruz.

He’d incorporated a transport business called “Your Freight Guys” in Aurora, Colorado, two months before his arrest.

The 911 calls kept coming. Merritt “was advised the large truck had continued northbound toward Jackson after running a car off the road,” so the trooper asked Teton County Sheriff’s deputies to track the truck down while he pulled off to investigate a white BMW, in the ditch with its front end smashed and its air bags deployed.

Two men, Brian and Nolan Potts, app were on scene. Brian was “visibly shaken up,” wrote Merritt.

Merritt found Brian’s friend Leonard in the BMW’s driver’s seat, emergency personnel “being careful” about pulling him out because they suspected a back injury.

Leonard said the truck crossed from its northbound lane into his southbound lane to hit them.

“I swerved hard because he was coming directly at me, head-on,” Leonard recalled in a Friday interview with Cowboy State Daily. “When we went into the ditch we went airborne. I don’t know how long we were in the air, but I know we crashed down very hard, and I felt my back immediately.”

He broke his L2 vertebra, Leonard said. As of this week, he still struggles to load the dishwasher, he added.

The three friends had been hiking in Yellowstone that day and were headed back to a cabin Leonard rented in Alpine, using the BMW – which was also rented.

“Had I been on the other side of the road, I would have driven down in the Snake River,” Leonard said. “And then I’d be – probably not talking to you.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Witnesses, More Witnesses"}]

Merritt interviewed a man and woman “hanging around” and trying to help. They were Michael and Kym Arian.

When they first spotted the box truck they saw another vehicle speeding backwards away from it as it chased to ram it “front to front,” wrote Merritt from the Arians’ statements. That backward driver was later identified as Josh Petrey, and his passenger as Kara Petrey, the affidavit says.

The box truck halted in the middle of the road. The driver got out of the vehicle and ran toward the vehicle it had blocked onto the road, screaming, “Why are you following me!” says the document.

The driver got back into the truck and “took off,” then “made it a point to drive at the Arians in an aggressive manner, trying to ram their vehicle off the road,” Merritt recounted from the alleged victims’ statements.

Michael Arian was able to dodge. Then he followed the box truck while calling law enforcement. And that was when he and Kym saw the crashed BMW and stopped to help, reportedly.

[{"type":"text","text":"Why Are You Following Me?"}]

Another set of witnesses, Brian, Jodi and Colten Cook, wrote a later email to investigators saying they were halfway through the canyon that night “when a big cargo truck pulled sideways on the road, blocking both lanes.”

They thought the driver was attempting a turn in a “terrible place to try and turn around, because he was blocking both lanes of traffic,” the account says.

Then the man got out of the truck and ran toward them shouting “why are you following me?” and the driver of the Cooks’ car threw it into reverse to escape him, says the affidavit. The Cooks said the driver got back in his truck and tried to “run over” a car headed south toward Alpine.

The Cooks kept driving, flashing their headlights at other cars. They watched other cars swerve into the barrow pit, as the cargo truck kept “chasing us,” the account says, adding,  “This happened at least 12-15 times.”

“At one point he was chasing us and trying to run us over from behind,” the account says. “As soon as we were able to get cell coverage, we called 911.”

Josh Petrey’s email to investigators says he and Kara saw the truck parked across both lanes of the canyon and waited for it to move, but it was empty. Then the owner got into the truck, and Josh backed up to give him room.

“He then (started) trying to ram us,” the account says. “I reversed going between 20 and 30 mph. I zigzagged from one side to the other so he could not get any momentum.”

Josh Petrey assumed the driver got upset with this tactic. The driver slammed on his brakes in the middle of the road and got out of the truck, reportedly.

Josh Petrey rolled down his window to find out if the man was all right, he recalled.

“Have you had enough?!” yelled the driver, while charging the Petreys’ car on foot, says the account.

Josh Petrey sped past him and around his truck, where two other vehicles sat waiting. Josh rolled down his window and told the driver of a white truck to leave the area.

“We sped off and warned two different vehicles not to head that way, because the guy was unhinged,” wrote Josh Petrey.

He and his wife made it to Alpine, and within cellphone signal range, and called 911.

Merritt’s affidavit includes also an account from Marcus Loefverstrom, who recalled driving down the road with his wife and 11-month old son.

The family met multiple vehicles with their lights flashing “aggressively to warn me about something.”

The family saw a truck change lanes and head toward them; Loefverstrom tried to veer to the right into a rocky ditch, but realized that plan was no good, he wrote.

“I made a last-ditch decision to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid him on the left,” Loefverstrom wrote. Fortunately, the lane was clear. But they narrowly missed a head-on collision with the truck, reportedly.

“My wife remembers waking up to headlights right in front of our car. A near miss,” wrote Loefverstrom.

Loefverstrom watched other cars veer off the road. The driver of a Jeep asked if the family were OK and when Loefverstrom said they were, that driver “rushed off,” he recalled.

Loefverstrom called another family member, who was still in town, to tell her not to leave town yet.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Walters family gave a similar report, wrote Merritt."}]

The box truck crossed lanes “and attempted to head-on us,” wrote Roy Walters in his statement. Roy’s son Eamonn veered onto the shoulder, but the truck “tracked us and continued to try to collide with us,” the account says.

[{"type":"text","text":"Roy’s wife Kate added that they were trying to get home to Etna."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"They saw Leonard in the crashed BMW and pulled off to help him."}]

“He was shaking and moaning,” Kate recalled. They gave him a blanket and water.

[{"type":"text","text":"Against The Guard Rail"}]

All of that happened in Lincoln County, allegedly. The case to determine whether Chavez Cruz is guilty of all those claims is ongoing. It was charged two years ago: June 26, 2024, but is now becoming active since Teton County has concluded its case against Chavez Cruz, said Allred.

Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Caleb Johnson was still in Teton County as he responded to 911 calls about a “crazy driver,” Fuller said in court.

There the box truck crossed both lanes and charged him so that he had to “suck up to the guard rail” to avoid being hit,” Merritt’s affidavit says.

Deputies converged, and stopped the box truck in Teton County. The truck driver informed them he thought he “was one of them,” the trooper wrote.

Investigators noted a Delta 8 edibles package in the truck cab, open and empty, added Merritt.

“Teton County got lucky in this case,” said Fuller at the sentencing hearing, adding, “The people in Teton County got lucky I should say. The defendant’s actions began in Lincoln County.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Two Years Later"}]

Leonard was frustrated Tuesday. He had a hot-mic moment in the virtual court hearing in which he called Chavez Cruz a “career criminal.”

He voiced disappointment afterward to Cowboy State Daily at the sentence Chavez Cruz received.

“I was mortified,” said Leonard. “And kind of sickened, to be honest with you.”

But the case isn’t over, as Lincoln County prepares for its nine-count prosecution.

While Teton County authorities charged Chavez Cruz one day after his arrest and he promptly bonded out, Allred didn’t charge the man for another 21 days.

At the time it seemed to Leonard that Chavez Cruz had vanished “into the wind.” He filed a bar complaint against Allred.

[{"type":"text","text":"That didn’t rise to the level of ethical misconduct, Allred, told"}]

But Allred didn’t even know about the case while Teton County authorities were both charging and releasing Chavez Cruz, Allred countered in his own Thursday interview.

“I was not even informed about this case until two weeks later. I didn’t have anything from law enforcement – they hadn’t given me anything,” said Allred, adding that without the investigation report, he couldn’t file the case.

[{"type":"text","text":"Once he received the affidavit, he said, “I immediately filed.”"}]

Allred also said the bar complaint went nowhere, since the claims against him didn’t rise to the level of ethical violations. The prosecutor will need to work with Leonard in the case ahead, Allred acknowledged.

“I don’t have anything against Mr. Leonard. He will certainly be a key witness in our case against Mr. Cruz,” he said.

Chavez Cruz posted a $15,000 bond and was released from the Teton County Detention Center soon after his June 4, 2024, arrest.

Then he committed crimes in Colorado, according to a booking document Cowboy State Daily has obtained, and statements made in court Tuesday.

Chavez Cruz told Owens he’s on probation; his attorney Elisabeth Trefonas clarified that’s due to crimes he committed in Colorado after the box truck incident.

Cowboy State Daily has placed a records request for that case disposition and charges with Colorado’s judicial branch.

When Chavez Cruz didn’t appear for a Jan. 28, 2025, hearing, Owens issued an all-states bench warrant for his arrest. Teton County collected him into custody and he appeared for court in December. By the time of his sentencing he’d spent a collective 222 days in jail – a stint that includes evaluations to determine whether he was mentally fit to face court proceedings.

[{"type":"text","text":"For several weeks, he wasn’t, the court file indicates."}]

But Owens reversed course late this winter after another evaluation indicated Chavez Cruz had become competent, and declared him fit for court.

Trefonas said Chavez Cruz had also been found incompetent at some point in his Colorado case. 

Meanwhile, Leonard has also filed a civil lawsuit complaint against Chavez Cruz in the federal U.S. District Court for Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"That case is paused to allow the prosecutions to unfold."}]

It’s unclear if ICE has a detainer or other ongoing proceedings involving Chavez Cruz.

Jackson sheriff and sign 7 10 26

<title>Mexican Trucker Accused Of Furious Canyon Rampage Trying To Stay In U.S. | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Mexican national who faces eight felonies is attempting to stay in the country after he allegedly chased down and tried to ram travelers off the road in Snake River Canyon. He "deliberately crossed the centerline and targeted our vehicle," one victim said.

Mexican Trucker Accused Of Furious Canyon Rampage Trying To Stay In U.S.

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A Lovell man says he’s reasonably sure a bear he briefly spotted off Dayton Gulch Road in the Bighorn Mountains last week was a grizzly.

Casey Jones told Cowboy State Daily he saw the bear at about 3:30 or 4 p.m. July 2, and caught a video of it.

“The hump between the shoulders, that’s what got me to thinking it’s a grizzly,” he said during a telephone interview Thursday when he had brief service from the Bighorns.

His father, Levi Jones of Lovell, posted the video on social media, igniting a debate over whether the bear is in fact a grizzly or a member of the Bighorns’ significant population of black bears.

Retired Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist Mark Bruscino viewed the video and told Cowboy State Daily that “I can’t tell for sure” whether the bear is a grizzly from the brief, distant clip.

Casey Jones said the bear is the first he’s ever seen in the Bighorns that he suspects is a grizzly, although he’s seen what he thought were grizzly tracks.

He added that he hasn’t seen the bear since he took the video or heard of anybody else in the Bighorns spotting it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Reports Over The Years"}]

Rumors of grizzlies in the Bighorns have abounded for years.

Bruscino recalled getting reports as far back as the early 1990s.

“We had regular reports of them (grizzlies) in the Bighorns. And those that we followed up for we had no evidence or we confirmed that they were black bears,” he said.

Bruscino worked for Game and Fish for 29 years before retiring in 2013. He served as game warden, a trophy-game conflict officer and the large carnivore services supervisor.

The only officially verified grizzly in the Bighorns in recent memory was a sub-adult male 

 in April 2024. Wildlife agents killed that bear for preying on livestock.

John Baughman served as Game and Fish director from 1996-2002 and told Cowboy State Daily he recalled the department getting reports of grizzlies in unusual places during his tenure, but never a confirmed sighting in the Bighorns.

“There was one (grizzly) over by Cowley” in Big Horn County, he said.

And there were also frequent sightings of grizzlies near Ralston, in eastern Park County, Baughman said.

Grizzlies would also frequently show up in the fall east of Clark, also in Park County, drawn by ripening Russian olive trees.

“Those bears are crazy for Russian olives,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"How Could They Get There?"}]

Bruscino said if the bear in Jones’ video is a grizzly it will likely show up somewhere else in the area and be confirmed.

There’s no evidence of an established population of grizzlies in the Bighorns, he said.

For one thing, numerous domestic sheep flocks are in the Bighorns. Grizzlies are known to prey on sheep, so there would be numerous reports of attacks if grizzlies frequented the mountains, he said.

However, it’s “not inconceivable” for an “occasional disperser" to wander into the Bighorns, Bruscino said.

Dispersers, or lone bears roaming great distances, tend to be young males, he said.

And grizzlies are expanding their territory across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Bruscino noted.

“Expansion is happening. It’s happened over the decades, that’s obvious and documented,” he said.

As to how a grizzly might reach the Bighorns, there are a few paths that could take.

A grizzly could follow the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River toward the Pryor Mountains and then keep moving into the Bighorns, Bruscino said.

“They could also possibly come across the Bighorn Basin undetected by following the Greybull or Shoshone rivers,” he added.

A grizzly might also traverse the Meeteetse rim to reach the Bighorns. Or one could also make a long circle around the Owl Creek Mountains, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Difficult To Tell"}]

Distinguishing a grizzly from a black bear can be difficult, even for professionals, Bruscino said.  

He recalled that members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team would sometimes “send pictures of bears back and forth,” challenging each other to identify them as black bears or grizzlies. And sometimes, biologists would get the wrong answer.

Grizzlies can be mistaken for black bears when they’re wet because that can push down the fur around their telltale humps, he said. And a wet coat will also make a grizzly’s ears look larger.

Larger ears in proportion to the head are one telltale sign of a black bear.

He recalled an incident when he and another biologist were arguing over whether a bear caught in a snare was a grizzly or a black bear.

After they moved in to tranquilize and examine the bear, it turned out to be a female grizzly with a wet coat, Bruscino said.  

 challenging viewers to determine whether bears in a series of photographs are grizzlies or black bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Always Be Bear Safe"}]

Casey Jones noted that the area where he spotted the alleged grizzly isn’t far from where two campers, Shonna Kaye Dehl of Lovell and Maggie Bassett of Powell, were driven from their camp by an 

In an email to Cowboy State Daily, Game and Fish large-carnivore specialist Dan Thompson said the agency can’t offer comment on any particular video shared to social media.

He added that bear safety protocols, such as securing food around campsites, should be observed, regardless of which bear species is in the area.

Sheridan bear 7 10 26

<title>Distant Video Of Bear In Bighorn Mountains Reignites Debate Over Grizzlies In Area | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Lovell man says he thinks a bear he spotted off Dayton Gulch Road in the Bighorn Mountains last week was a grizzly. Casey Jones took a quick video of the bear and said,"The hump between the shoulders, that’s what got me to thinking it’s a grizzly."

Distant Video Of Bear In Bighorn Mountains Reignites Debate Over Grizzlies In Area

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

Renée Jean

Energy

A crude-oil pipeline proposed between Guernsey and Cushing, Oklahoma, is poised to strengthen Wyoming’s role as a key crossroads in North America’s oil network — even though it likely won’t move a single barrel of Wyoming crude.

A new crude oil pipeline proposed between Guernsey and Oklahoma that could carry up to 1.3 million barrels of crude per day would strengthen Wyoming’s role as a key crossroads. A national analyst said Guernsey is the Rocky Mountain's "most important hub."

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