Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"When you see Mom walking up to take you home....."}]

Smile 12 3 24

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

<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, December 3, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When you see Mom walking up to take you home.....

Daily Smile: Tuesday, December 3, 2024

 When you see Mom walking up to take you home.....

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Greybull woman accused of siphoning more than $155,000 from her elderly parents over the course of a decade is headed to felony-level District Court.

Following a preliminary hearing Wednesday afternoon, a criminal case against 52-year-old Samantha Cook was bound over to Big Horn County District Court.

Circuit Court Judge Edward G. Luhm signed an order Thursday transferring four felony charges, including two counts of felony theft and two counts of exploiting a vulnerable adult. 

Court records show Cook posted a $3,500 cash bond in May, which was exonerated on Thursday. She is represented by attorney Brigita Krisjansons.

If convicted on all four charges and ordered to serve consecutive sentences, Cook could face up to 40 years in prison.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Trust"}]

first surfaced in April, when investigators accused Cook of systematically draining money from accounts belonging to her parents, both in their 80s.

The case centers on what authorities describe as a decade-long pattern of unauthorized spending that began after Cook's mother suffered a serious injury and the couple needed help managing their finances.

What started as assistance with paying bills allegedly evolved into Cook using her parents' debit cards, checking accounts and credit accounts for personal purchases, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in her case. 

Investigators allege Cook's spending went far beyond everyday purchases, including Venmo payments to multiple people, gifts to relatives and mounting credit card balances.

[{"type":"text","text":"The alleged losses eventually exceeded $155,000."}]

When confronted about how she managed the accounts, Cook admitted to investigators that she had "exclusive access" to her parents' accounts and did spend their money on "personal things," the affidavit says. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Small Charges, Big Total"}]

The alleged spending ranged from relatively small purchases to major expenses spread across many years.

Investigators cited a refrigerator bought through a store credit account that eventually carried a balance of more than $8,000.

The affidavit further alleges Cook convinced her parents to cash out several certificates of deposit because they were running short on money, including a larger CD worth more than $24,000 that her father said was reserved exclusively for funeral and burial expenses.

The scheme began to unravel in March 2025 after Cook's father learned how to access his financial accounts online and started noticing charges he didn't recognize.

His suspicions deepened when the bank contacted him about a $300 bad check Cook had allegedly written on the account for pellet stove repairs.

After she admitted taking the money without permission and promised to repay it, the couple closed their accounts and opened new ones she could no longer access, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"District Court Next"}]

The preliminary hearing did not determine guilt or innocence. Instead, the court's role was to decide whether prosecutors presented enough evidence to move the case forward.

Judge Luhm ultimately found probable cause on all four felony counts and ordered the matter transferred to District Court.

Cook's next appearance will be an arraignment in Big Horn County District Court, where she will be asked to enter pleas to the charges.

Big Horn County Sheriff and green sign 4 10 26

<title>Case Advances Against Greybull Woman Charged With Taking $155K From Elderly Parents | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Greybull woman accused of siphoning more than $155,000 from her elderly parents over the course of a decade advanced Wednesday to felony-level District Court. She could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

Case Advances Against Greybull Woman Charged With Taking $155K From Elderly Parents

A Utah car dealer is facing 15 felony charges in Wyoming after state investigators uncovered what they describe as a trail of forged signatures, fake notary stamps and dead vehicle owners.

Court records show Scott Keith Pryor, owner of The Good Car Dealer in Salt Lake City, has been charged with 15 counts of falsification, alteration, forgery or counterfeiting of vehicle title documents.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

A Laramie County judge found probable cause June 4 to support an arrest warrant, and as of Friday afternoon, the warrant hand’t been served on Pryor.

The investigation centers on 15 hail-damaged Wyoming vehicles, but Wyoming Department of Transportation investigator Shane Fox wrote in an affidavit that Pryor bought 292 vehicles worth nearly $2 million through Copart auctions during the previous 12 months.

At the center of the case is an investigation by Fox, a senior investigator with WYDOT's Compliance and Investigation Section.

Fox wrote that the case began after employees in the Laramie County Clerk's Office noticed more than a dozen duplicate title applications they described as "very odd" and suspicious.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hailstorm Cars And Missing Titles"}]

The vehicles all trace back to a massive August 2025 Cheyenne hailstorm that caused widespread damage. 

Fox wrote that Pryor bought 15 Wyoming vehicles through Copart auctions in Colorado after insurance companies took possession of them following hail-damage claims.

Many of the vehicles were sold as "parts only," meaning they came with bills of sale rather than traditional titles.

Vehicles sold as parts-only units typically bring far less money than vehicles carrying clear titles. A clean title can dramatically increase a vehicle's resale value, the affidavit says.

Fox wrote that Pryor later submitted duplicate title applications through Laramie County in an attempt to obtain Wyoming titles for the vehicles.

[{"type":"text","text":"The applications all claimed the original titles had been lost."}]

Cheyenne auto dealer Dallas Tyrrell said dealers across southeast Wyoming are still dealing with the aftermath of the historic hailstorm.

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

One of Pryor's applications involved a Wyoming woman who died July 12, 2025, nearly three weeks before the Aug. 1 storm.

"It would have been impossible for (the woman) to sign the duplicate title application," Fox wrote.

The duplicate title application bearing her signature was dated March 5, 2026.

The investigator tracked down notaries and vehicle owners, the affidavit says. Several notaries allegedly told investigators the stamps were not theirs, the signatures were not theirs and they had never signed the documents in question.

Several vehicle owners also told investigators they never signed duplicate title applications.

In one case, Fox wrote that he met personally with a U.S. Air Force member stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.

The service member reviewed the paperwork and said he had never signed the application. The same pattern appears again and again, documented throughout an 11-page criminal affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Facebook Connection"}]

As investigators dug deeper, the trail led to a company called Tennessee Titles, the affidavit says.

Pryor allegedly told investigators he found the company through Facebook and paid about $150 per title application, Fox wrote.

The people he dealt with were identified only as "Rashard" and "Miss Catherine," and primarily communicated through Facebook Messenger.

When Fox asked to see proof, Pryor reportedly said the computer used for those messages had been replaced, and the records were no longer accessible.

Pryor could not provide documentation establishing the legitimacy of the company or proof of payment.

He did acknowledge obtaining lien releases from financial institutions and completing money orders that were mailed to the Laramie County Clerk's Office along with the duplicate title applications, the affidavit says.

By then, investigators had begun contacting vehicle owners scattered across multiple states.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Forged Names, Forged Stamps"}]

Fox wrote that one Colorado notary employed by Copart reviewed paperwork bearing her name and told investigators neither the stamp nor signature were hers. A Utah notary allegedly said the same thing.

Another notary denied notarizing multiple applications tied to the investigation, Fox wrote in the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","text":"Several vehicle owners denied authorizing the documents."}]

One business executive told investigators a person listed on a title application had no affiliation with the company and no authority to sign documents on its behalf.

[{"type":"text","text":"Fox wrote that he became convinced numerous signatures had been forged."}]

The affidavit details vehicle after vehicle, owner after owner and notary after notary, each producing similar results, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why Titles Matter"}]

The allegations may sound like little more than paperwork fraud, but Tyrrell said vehicle titles can dramatically affect a vehicle's value and whether buyers can insure, finance or legally operate it.

A clean title is every bit as important as what's under the hood, he confirmed. 

Tyrrell said reputable dealers carefully examine a vehicle's title history before offering it for sale.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We see victims to scams like this all the time,\" he said."}]

Tyrrell said consumers should work with licensed, reputable dealers and pay close attention to a vehicle's title history before making a purchase.

"It's so important to use somebody that has a license and is reputable," he said, adding that often these scamsters don't get prosecuted at all because the schemes are comlex. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long Road Ahead"}]

Fox believes the duplicate title applications allowed vehicles that had moved through the insurance and salvage system to re-enter the marketplace with Wyoming titles.

He wrote that some of the vehicles had previously been sold through Copart as salvage or parts-only units.

The affidavit alleges Pryor later sold the vehicles to buyers in Utah with unbranded titles, and at a "nice profit." 

Fox declined to answer questions about the case and did not respond to additional requests for comment.

Good car dealer 6 12 26

<title>Car Dealer Faces 15 Felonies In Alleged $2 Million Resale Of Hail-Damaged Cars | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Utah car dealer is facing 15 Wyoming felony charges for the alleged attempted illegal resale of nearly $2 million worth of hail-damaged vehicles. Investigators describe a trail of alleged forged signatures, fake notary stamps and dead vehicle owners.

Car Dealer Faces 15 Felonies In Alleged $2 Million Resale Of Hail-Damaged Cars

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

Clair McFarland

A retired Wyoming judge on Friday struck down three state-level abortion restrictions.

One would have required abortion clinics to be licensed as surgical centers and that abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 10 miles of the clinic. Another would have required women 

 an ultrasound 48 hours before taking abortion drugs.

The third law took on the abortion issue from a backward angle: it was a response to the COVID-19 era, when at least one Wyoming doctor reportedly suffered professional consequences for prescribing off-label drugs to treat

The Legislature in 2025 gave protections to doctors prescribing drugs off-label, but carved out abortion drugs so that medical professionals prescribing off-label abortion drugs wouldn’t enjoy those protections.

None of these laws survive the Wyoming Constitution’s call for health care autonomy, ruled District Court Judge Thomas Campbell, who was called to return to the bench in 2025 and oversee this case in place of any regularly-seated Natrona County District Court Judge.

The difference between retired judges recalled to service and seated district court judges in Wyoming is that seated judges face retention elections every six years.

Campbell’s Friday order gave summary judgment — which is a pre-trial win — to the pro-choice coalition suing the state.

The judge said the pro-choice group provided evidence “that abortion is inherently safe.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The ‘Johnson’ Ruling"}]

Campbell’s order relies on the Jan. 6 ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court, called the “Johnson” ruling. 

That ruling struck down two laws that together banned nearly all abortions, but had exemptions for medical emergencies, rape, and incest. 

The Johnson case, a landmark ruling in Wyoming, declares that abortion access is a fundamental health care right under the Constitution’s health care clause. 

To overcome that right, the state would have to survive the most rigorous standard in constitutional law and show it has a compelling interest to restrict the right, and that its restrictions are both capable of achieving that interest and narrowly tailored to do so.

According to Campbell, Wyoming didn’t bring adequate evidence to show it needs these abortion restrictions. The judge blocked all three laws, permanently, from being enforced.

“In these instances, the Court agrees with the (pro

choice group) Plaintiffs’ characterization that these laws ‘are solutions in need of a problem,’” wrote Campbell in the order.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office had argued that the ultrasound requirement would help protect women who don’t know they have ectopic pregnancies and take abortion drugs, risking ruptures and other serious conditions.

Campbell said the study the state brought as evidence was inadequate 

 there were anachronisms in the evidence.

As for the 48-hour waiting period, wrote Campbell, “the State cites 

 empirical evidence regarding the propriety of a waiting period.”

The AG’s office had argued, conversely, that the waiting period would help a woman consider the accuracy of her ultrasound and whether she wants a second opinion on it.

The state had defended the law requiring clinics to meet surgical center requirements by noting that it would tether abortion clinics to cleanliness standards in the associated Wyoming Department of Health rules.

But the state failed to show that the abortion clinic isn’t already meeting cleanliness standards, Campbell parried.

“Thus, the Court cannot conclude this concern is justified,” wrote Campbell. “Instead, the harm remains speculative.”

Regarding the law’s requirement for admitting privileges, the state had argued that abortionists should be linked with a nearby hospital because otherwise, they could simply send harmed women to an emergency room and dodge accountability for botched surgeries.

Campbell called that allegation conclusory, and said the state offered no evidence “regarding the prevalence of such an event.”

Campbell also maintained that the carveout under Wyoming’s off-label protection law acted like a harm to those prescribing chemical abortions.

“As the Plaintiffs aptly note, mifepristone and misoprostol are the most common medications prescribed for a chemical abortion,” Campbell wrote, “the combination of which is considered an ‘off-label indication’ for the drugs.”

By excluding them from protections, the carveout would have greenlit consequences for chemical abortion providers, Campbell concluded.

[{"type":"text","text":"And The Next Rodeo"}]

Wyoming has been defending its many abortion bans and restrictions from roughly the same pro-choice coalition since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and made the issue a state-level policy decision in 2022. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Even after the Johnson case and Friday's ruling, the battle continues. "}]

The Legislature passed the Human Heartbeat Act in its most recent lawmaking session, banning abortions generally after the point in gestation at which a fetal heartbeat can be heard, about six weeks. 

Natrona County District Court Judge Dan Forgey temporarily blocked that law in April. The case against it is ongoing. Forgey is a sitting judge.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz has pronounced an intention, in a court hearing, to bring evidence that the state is justified in banning abortion. 

Gov. Mark Gordon has urged the Wyoming Legislature to advance to the voters a constitutional amendment so that the Legislature can restrict or ban abortions. The Legislature did not do that, instead passing more legislation this year.

Abortion protest 6 12 26

<title>Judge Strikes Down Another Set Of Wyoming’s Abortion Restrictions | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A retired Wyoming judge on Friday struck down three state-level abortion laws, including one requiring abortion clinics be licensed as surgical centers. He said the pro-choice group challenging the laws provided evidence “that abortion is inherently safe.”

Judge Strikes Down Another Set Of Wyoming’s Abortion Restrictions

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

Greg Johnson

A Carbon County Sheriff’s Office deputy remains in critical condition in a Colorado hospital days after taking bullets to the neck, arm and hip from an armed man in Baggs, Wyoming, who would later die in a shootout with law enforcement.

That Sgt. Zach Burns is alive at all is a miracle, said Baggs Mayor Matthew Howell, who lives next door to the apartment building Burns was responding to when he was shot Monday.

A deputy being shot, coupled with a high-speed chase and shootout with the suspect, is enough to make Monday one of the darkest days in the 116-year history of the tiny town of 411 people.

The way local residents rushed to save Burns’ life and maintain their composure during a daylong manhunt on lockdown also was one of the town’s best days, Howell said.

“It wasn’t a good thing that happened, but it was a great thing” in how people reacted, the mayor said.

Tragedy and conflict “really can bring out the best in people, and it really puts people here in a rural community like ours in a position to act like heroes,” he told Cowboy State Daily, adding that on Monday, that’s how they acted.

“Heroes are here,” Howell said. “I think the officer had a way better chance of making it through that (attack) because of the two people who rendered aid and slowed the bleeding down until the ambulance got there.

[{"type":"text","text":"“If nobody had come to his aid, he probably wouldn’t be here now.”"}]

That’s a sentiment shared by Wyoming state Rep. Bob Davis, R-Baggs, who said the suspect didn’t just shoot a deputy, he shot a member of the community and a friend.

“This particular officer, Zach Burns, he’s down there during the school hours patrolling the school zones,” Davis said on Thursday’s “Cowboy State Daily Show” with Jake Nichols. “For him to actually respond and basically … for somebody to shoot him was just unbelievable.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Expected To Pull Through’"}]

Burns was shot when he rolled up in response to a call of an active shooting at an apartment building near Wyoming Highway 789 near the south edge of the town, the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office has reported.

“Sergeant Burns located the suspect vehicle and initiated a traffic stop in front of a small apartment complex in Baggs,” Sheriff Alex Bakken said in the report. “Upon coming to a stop, the suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Sergeant Burns with a semiautomatic rifle.”

Burns was struck in the neck, arm and hip, the sheriff says in the report.

The suspect — who so far has not been named by law enforcement but 

Carbon County Coroner Brittany Nyman told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday email that “all public information shall be released as part of the public docket at the conclusion of the investigation.”

“The suspect proceeded to set fire to the apartment building before getting back in his vehicle and fleeing northbound on Highway 789,” Bakken wrote.

[{"type":"text","text":"He also called out the quick actions of locals who helped Burns."}]

“Residents of Baggs immediately rushed to provide aid to Sergeant Burns until EMS crews could arrive, providing cover and emergency wound treatment,” Bakken says in the report.

Burns was taken by helicopter ambulance “to a trauma center in Colorado, where he is expected to pull through,” the report says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘The Best In People’"}]

In the rural Snake River Valley near Wyoming’s southern border with Colorado, most everyone knows each other, Davis said.

It also means life has its own pace and it’s hard for a significant event to happen without everyone knowing about it, he added.

“You wake up in the morning, and you never think of an active shooter situation occurring in your backyard, you know,” Davis said. “And basically, what it was … the person from what we understand just lived (in Baggs) and worked in the state to the south there.

“For whatever reason, (he) just got off his rocker, I guess.”

By Tuesday morning, the town looked like it always had, with the dozens of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies gone and people heading to work.

But the coffee talk has taken a break from politics, Davis said.

“They’re at the Cowboy Inn and the Stage Stop General Store, where you’ve got your little stools up there and the coffee pot’s always on,” he said. “What happened, I mean, it’s being discussed. The pipeline (is going) and brother-in-law called you and said this is going on, and your daughter’s working at the store and said this is going on.

“I’m sure you can check the rumor mill and find out 100 different scenarios going on.”

For his part, Howell said he’s impressed — but not surprised — with how Baggs responded during a dangerous, emergency situation.

“There wasn’t a single moment that the response wasn’t fluid,” he said, adding that if he had left for work 10 minutes earlier, he would’ve been right next to the scene of the shooting.

“I just don’t know how you get that lucky to get that many people to work together that quickly,” Howell said. “The first two people who rendered aid to the sheriff’s officer own two businesses here close to my house and were there very quick.”

Without them trying to stop Burns’ bleeding before EMS arrived — which also was within minutes — Howell said he thinks the sergeant would’ve bled out.

“It really does bring out the best in people, and it really puts people here in a rural community like ours — it makes it so special,” he said. “Whether they were the first person caring for the injured sheriff or just people trying to help with whatever they need to do, that’s just our community. That’s how it works.”

Davis said Baggs also was lucky to have so many emergency responders show up in a short time.

“Our hats have to be off to the first responders. I mean our local EMS, fire department,” he said. “When the gentleman torched the building again and went in before the high-speed chase happened — these are the heroes.”

 has been set up for Burns and his family, which has raised nearly $42,000 by Friday afternoon.

Zach Burns and Baggs 6 12 26

<title>Deputy Shot In Baggs Saved By Quick-Acting Residents | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Sgt. Zach Burns remains in critical condition after being shot multiple times by a gunman in Baggs on Monday. “It wasn’t a good thing that happened, but it was a great thing” in how people reacted, the mayor said, which was “like heroes.”

Deputy Shot In Baggs Saved By Quick-Acting Residents

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that it's investigating a graphic video of a man, allegedly a Wyoming resident, grabbing a seemingly wounded coyote by its tail, tossing the animal, then chasing it down to kick, stab and taunt it.

The video also was sent to Cowboy State Daily by a private investigator, Reece Soukoroff, who said he was the person who also sent it to Game and Fish.

Game and Fish Spokeswoman Amanda Fry said Friday that the department had received Soukoroff’s correspondence and is investigating the matter.

Because the video and what it shows is under investigation, Game and Fish could not offer any further information or comment, she said.

Soukoroff’s correspondence names the man allegedly in the video and identifies him as a Wyoming resident. Because no citations or charges have yet been filed in the matter, Cowboy State Daily will not identify him. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What The Video Depicts"}]

The video takes place in what appears to be a winter landscape and begins with the man reaching under some sagebrush and grabbing the coyote by its tail while someone else takes video.

There’s blood on the ground near the sagebrush, indicating it had possibly already been injured. He pulls the coyote out from under the bush by the tail and flings it several yards.

The coyote, which appears to have blood on it, tries to run but its mobility appears to be compromised.

The man pursues the coyote, catches up to it and kicks it in the head. The coyote then apparently barks and falls over on its side.

The man produces a knife, circles the prone animal, and stabs the coyote once in the front shoulder area.

Then he kicks the animal again and taps it on the head with the knife’s blade while the coyote raises its head with its mouth open looking at the man.

Sourkoroff said he was hired by a client, who will remain anonymous, to look into the incident.

He sent correspondence to Cowboy State Daily as well as wildlife agencies, animal welfare groups and other organizations in several states and in British Columbia, Canada.

In a text message exchange with Cowboy State Daily early Friday, he said his client hasn’t yet been able to identify exactly when and where the video was taken.

Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, told Cowboy State Daily that his organization had received Sourkoroff’s correspondence.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is investigating a graphic video where an alleged Wyoming man tortures a seemingly wounded coyote. The video shows a man grabbing the coyote by its tail and then tossing, kicking, stabbing, and taunting the animal.

Daily Smile: Tuesday, December 3, 2024

In case you missed it

More in Daily Smile

Daily Smile: Friday, June 12, 2026

Daily Smile: Thursday, June 11, 2026

Daily Smile: Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Daily Smile: Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Most read