Accused of firing a shotgun toward his wife and pointing it at a man who drove her home, a Sheridan man could face up to 20 years in prison.
Oscar Gaona, 43, is set for a Nov. 7 arraignment in Sheridan County District Court.
An evidentiary affidavit by Sheridan County Sheriff’s Deputy Shaun Pushcar says that deputies went to a home in Sheridan County at 9:41 p.m. on Oct. 9, when a bystander called to report hearing a gunshot, and watching a woman fleeing and screaming “he tried to shoot me.”
The woman also called 911 and told an emergency dispatcher that her husband, Gaona, had pulled a shotgun on her, and that the gun went off as she ran away, says the document.
Gaona and the woman were “separating” but were still living together as of this incident, Pushcar wrote.
The woman later told investigators that she got to her home that day with a man Pushcar called a “male friend” of hers. Gaona approached the driver’s side door and confronted the male. The wife exited the vehicle, and the male friend backed out of the driveway to leave, says the document.
Gaona ran up the stairs, into the apartment, and retrieved a shotgun kept in the closet by the front door, the affidavit relates from the wife’s interview.
Gaona held the shotgun over the second story balcony railing and pointed the shotgun at the male’s vehicle as he drove away, Pushcar wrote. The woman started running away; she saw the shotgun’s muzzle pointed at her. As she rounded the side of the apartment complex, she heard the gun fire, she told investigators.
The Hunt
The affidavit next describes a chase.
As she ran around the block, the wife saw Gaona’s truck coming towards her, the affidavit says.
She told investigators she was afraid he was going to shoot her, so she tried to hide in a barrow ditch.
Once his truck was gone, she ran back to the apartment, where a 911 dispatcher returned her call – after she’d placed an earlier 911 call, the document says.
She locked the door and told dispatch that Gaona tried getting into the apartment.
Pushcar and other deputies arrived.
One deputy read Gaona his Miranda rights and spoke with him. From Gaona’s interview, the deputy “essentially gathered” that Gaona did retrieve a shotgun, but claimed he didn’t mean for it to go off from the balcony where he’d been standing, says the document.
After the gun went off, Gaona hid it and three shotgun shells in two separate sheds on the property, the affidavit alleges.
With Gaona’s help, deputies later found the shotgun and three shells – two unspent and one spent, says the document. Pushcar called this discovery consistent with the bystander and the wife’s reports of a single shot fired.
A firefighter who was in the area shortly before responding to the scene also reported hearing a single gunshot, says the document.
Without Incident
Deputies arrested Gaona and took him to the Sheridan County Detention Center “without incident,” says the document.
Gaona’s case was filed in Sheridan County District Court on Oct. 28.
On that same date, his wife filed for divorce.
Her divorce complaint says they’ve been married nine years, since Aug. 1, 2015, and that they were married in Story, Wyoming.
The wife did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
