A Fremont County man pleaded not guilty Friday to smashing up the Riverton Post Office in an attempt to scare off a dozen gangsters after snorting a line methamphetamine.
Sherette Lujan, 48, was indicted last month in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming on suspicion of destroying United States property. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. His jury trial is set for Sept. 23.
The investigation started June 15 at 10:39 p.m., when a person called in a report of a man wearing a grey shirt breaking glass with a metal object inside the Riverton Post Office.
Riverton Police Department Officer Carl Johnson responded to find the building entrance partially blocked by two recycling bins and a metal signpost that had been overturned onto the floor, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
Inside, he found several pieces of mail strewn on the floor among shards of broken glass, and numerous windows damaged, the document says.
Johnson followed the sound of metallic clangs emanating from the landing area at the top of the staircase. He announced his presence, and a man emerged from behind the wall at the top of the staircase landing, says the affidavit.
The document says Lujan “was directed at gunpoint” to drop anything in his hands and walk down the stairs. He complied and was arrested.
The affidavit says the man identified himself as Sherette Lujan while he was in Johnson’s patrol vehicle.
Brass Pipe
An investigator inspecting the building later found no one else there.
One glass display case and the basement door window were damaged and their glass broken, says the affidavit.
The investigator found a large brass pipe found lying on the landing floor, scratched and dented as if it had been smacking something, reportedly.
The entrance door’s handles were battered as well, the document says.
Lujan reportedly told police he’d been at a bar drinking Fireball whiskey and that he’d “done a line” of abnormally-potent meth before leaving the area of the bar on foot.
As he walked on Main Street, a group of 10-12 gangsters started chasing him, so he fled and hid inside the post office building, Lujan told police, according to the affidavit.
He said he tried to barricade the front entrances to the post office using things from the lobby, and that was when the lobby door’s brass handle broke off, the document relates. He also reportedly said he started bashing the windows to show the dozen gangster pursuers that he, too, was gangster.
That Noise
The young man who called in the incident told police that he stopped by the post office because he heard breaking glass and metallic banging. When he looked inside, he saw a man with a metal pipe in his hand climbing and descending the staircase, the affidavit relates.
The witness reportedly said he saw no one else in the building.
A post office official told police that the damages exceeded $1,000. But the crime was charged federally because the post office is under federal jurisdiction.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
