A Fort Washakie, Wyoming, man was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison for second-degree murder in the Jan. 2 killing of Lawrence Oldman III, who was then 20.
Ezekiel Frank James Ute, 23, also was sentenced to five years of supervised probation to follow his prison term in the Casper outpost of Wyoming’s federal court, court documents say.
U.S. District Court Judge Kelly Rankin also ordered Ute to pay $30,695.37 in restitution, says a judgment order filed Friday. Oldman’s mother, sister, cousin, grandmother and a child all testified at Ute’s sentencing.
Ute was driving around the southern end of Riverton and drinking with a group of four other people in his turquoise Pontiac on Jan. 2, says the case affidavit.
A female sat in the passenger seat, another female sat in the middle back seat, while another person and Oldman were both in the back as well.
Ute started driving recklessly and acting like he planned to wreck the car. He stopped and the female in the front seat got out and refused to get back in.
Oldman got out and argued with the woman, telling her to get back in the car.
Ute got out of the car, attacked Oldman and stabbed him repeatedly, a witness told the FBI investigator.
Ute told the others he’d stab them as well if they didn’t get back in the car. Then he got back into the car and drove away, leaving Oldman lying in the road while allegedly holding the knife to his own throat as he drove.
The female sitting in the front seat reportedly took the knife from Ute and dropped it out of the car window.
Later, federal and Fremont County Sheriff’s Office investigators searched the area but could not find the knife.
Go Back
The female pleaded with Ute to turn around and go back for Oldman.
He did eventually turn around and go back to where Oldman still lay in the road. The female got out of the car and tried to help Oldman until emergency medical services arrived on scene, the affidavit says.
The second female witness, who claimed she was asleep during the stabbing, told authorities she woke to the sound of people arguing about Oldman.
“What did you do?” the back-seat female heard the front-seat female ask, reportedly. “Why did you stab him?”
Ute kept driving for about four minutes, the affidavit says.
The female in the front seat kept urging him to go back and look for Oldman.
“Why you guys wanna go back?” Ute asked, according to the affidavit.
But he drove back.
The females got out of the car to take care of Oldman, but the unidentified fifth person stayed in the car along with Ute, says the affidavit.
Ute sped off so quickly westward that one of the females was still trying to shut the car door as he sped away.
The females called 911.
‘Stay With Me’
The female who’d been sitting in the back seat took off her jacket and pressed it to a large wound on Oldman’s chest. He seemed “out of it,” she later recalled. But he was still awake and his eyes darted back and forth.
“Stay with me, you can’t leave yet. You’re gonna be OK,” she told him, according to the affidavit. She held his head to keep it out of the snow.
The second witness — who had reportedly cradled Oldman’s head in her arms — later told investigators that Ute had been bragging the night before the stabbing that he had a knife, was in the National Guard and had dog tags.
She described the knife as a switchblade-style knife with a black handle and silver blade. But she didn’t see that knife again after the stabbing, says the affidavit.
FBI, BIA
Ute acknowledged during an interview that he may have stabbed the victim while under the influence of alcohol, says a Friday statement by the office of the U.S. Attorney for Wyoming.
Ute was arrested Jan. 4, indicted March 13, and pleaded guilty July 15. This crime was investigated by the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Wind River Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy W. Gist.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, says the statement.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
