After a former Gillette, Wyoming, man asked for a new divorce trial on claims that his wife tried to have him killed, a state judge rejected his request from the bench Thursday.
Tami Hinson, a Gillette real estate agent, filed for divorce from oil and gas businessman Guy Morrison III in 2022 after 15 years of marriage and no shared children.
One year later, Campbell County authorities charged Hinson criminally with identity theft on claims she faked the signatures of other real estate agents to win more commission money. That case is ongoing and is overseen by a different judge than Hinson’s divorce.
Campbell County District Court Judge Matthew Castano divided up the divorcing couple’s property according to their prenuptial agreement and according to Wyoming divorce law last year.
After Castano issued an Aug. 14, 2023, decision letter, Morrison asked for a new divorce trial based on newly discovered evidence — with which he alleged that Hinson had tried to have him killed while he was involved in a lawsuit with Halliburton Energy Services in 2015.
Wyoming law contains provisions for civil parties to seek new trials based on new evidence which they could not with due diligence have found before trial, and which stands to sway the outcome in a new trial.
Morrison’s evidence didn’t meet those legal standards, Castano ruled Thursday.
“(We have) allegations from eight years prior to the trial,” said Castano. “Those allegations maybe show a little smoke, and maybe show a little heat, but don’t really show any fire.”
The judge said Morrison had access to most of the evidence before trial, though he acknowledged that some of it would have been difficult to obtain. But he doubted whether the evidence would have swayed a civil divorce trial in Wyoming, especially one rooted mostly in the terms of a prenuptial agreement rather than the respective merits of the husband and wife.
“The court can’t find that this evidence, if it had been produced at trial, was so material it would probably have produced a different verdict,” said Castano.
Wyoming Supreme Court, Also Thursday
Also on Thursday, the Wyoming Supreme Court rejected Morrison’s appeal in the divorce and upheld Castano’s earlier division order. Castano didn’t make any errors of law, the high court wrote in its order.
Hinson and Morrison’s prenuptial agreement was silent on what Castano was to do with any “commingling” of money between the two spouses.
Specifically, Hinson withdrew $100,000 from one of Morrison’s oil and gas companies in 2012.
Hinson testified that she returned the money by investing it later into another of Morrison’s companies.
Morrison disputed that claim, arguing in court documents that Hinson instead “helped herself” to his money in secret.
Castano made no finding regarding the $100,000, but divided the rest of the pair’s assets according to their contract and the law, according to the Wyoming Supreme Court’s Thursday ruling.
What The Evidence Says
When asking Castano for a new trial, Morrison filed multiple exhibits regarding a strange series of events nine years ago.
One is a 2015 letter from the legal counsel of J. Wayne Richards, whom Morrison’s company was suing at the time, along with Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
The letter says a man with a Gillette-based cellphone number called Richards. The caller insisted he was in the business of “fixing and taking care of things for people,” and that he knew where Richards lived and worked.
Richards told the caller he didn’t need his services in the lawsuit, as it was being resolved, the letter says. It concludes that Morrison’s safety may have also been in danger.
Morrison and Hinson’s attorneys sparred about the letter in Thursday’s hearing.
Morrison’s attorney Donna Domonkos wondered aloud if the caller, whom police later identified by his phone number as an employee of Hinson’s, was trying to “double dip” by killing Morrison while obtaining pay from both Hinson and the man Morrison was suing.
According to Morrison, Hinson “was lying” during her divorce trial about why and how she’d taken the $100,000 from Morrison’s company, Domonkos said. And realizing that bound all the shards of evidence together for Morrison, the attorney added.
“We don’t know if that (money) was supposed to be going to (Hinson’s employee) but it was at the same time all this was going on,” said Domonkos.
Hinson’s attorney Codie Henderson, conversely, drew attention to the fact that it was Morrison’s lawsuit opponent, not Morrison, who received the worrying phone call, and that Morrison and Hinson had gone to the police together to report the potential murder-for-hire plot in 2015.
“Frankly, I’m baffled as to how any of these pieces allegedly fit together,” said Henderson. “Mr. Morrison is not going to stop at anything to avoid this court’s decision. … (He’s) now on a second motion for a new trial, with his third law firm. Each time the allegations seem to get more … bizarre.”
Henderson said Hinson is growing weary and just wonders when the divorce will be over.
Police, At The Time
Ultimately, Hinson’s employee was charged with criminal entry on claims he broke into Hinson’s office, but that case is still pending after nine years. The file contains what appears to be an unfulfilled warrant: Hinson’s employee reportedly relocated to Michigan in 2015.
Domonkos characterized the reported break-in as a fake, and as Hinson’s “phony” attempt to draw the attention away from herself.
Also in 2015, Hinson’s employee had contacted Richards’ attorney and told her Hinson was extorting him into saying that Richards had hired him to kill Guy Morrison, according to a 2016 Gillette Police Department report.
Police ultimately closed the possible murder-for-hire case as unfounded after multiple failed attempts to talk with Hinson’s employee.
Morrison also supplied screenshots of a text message conversation between Hinson and her employee, in which Hinson asked whether her life was in any danger, and she offered to meet the employee in Fort Collins, Colorado, according to the court filing.
She also urged her employee to cooperate with the police.
The employee, in turn, told Hinson that she was never to talk to him or to his wife again, the exhibit shows.
Henderson declined Thursday via an office attendant to comment to Cowboy State Daily. Hinson could not be reached through her office phone or the cellphone number listed in court documents.
As for Morrison, he disputed the judge’s ruling.
“How dumb do you have to be to think if your ex-wife is going to try to hire a hitman to kill you, that wouldn’t have affected the divorce hearing?” said Morrison, adding that it would affect the hearing “because you’d be dead.”
He said he believes Hinson’s testimony at the divorce hearing was dishonest, and has the documentation to prove it - and he floated the idea of pursuing further action in federal court.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
