A man accused of stabbing his separated wife’s boyfriend to death Thursday in Cheyenne after a plumbing dispute remains in jail on a $20,000 bond.
Joseph Gish appeared in Cheyenne Circuit Court under Judge Thomas Lee on Monday morning. He’s charged with voluntary manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Court documents accuse him of stabbing his wife’s boyfriend in the chest, causing his death, after an argument about the boyfriend being in Gish’s way in the Cheyenne home they all occupied together even though Gish and his wife are separated.
Lee set Gish for a $20,000 cash-only bond and scheduled his preliminary hearing for Dec. 23.
Gish protested the bond, saying he’s not a flight risk; he doesn’t have a vehicle or other means of escape, and he’s the caretaker for his youngest daughter, who has a health condition.
Having a vehicle doesn’t eliminate a person’s chances of fleeing the county, Lee said.
“In my experience, people are clever and they can figure out ways to abscond,” said the judge. “However, Mr. Gish, this is at a minimum a serious felony charge. This charge at a minimum involves the taking of another human life.”
The judge noted that the manslaughter variation is “voluntary” rather than “involuntary.” The two variations carry the same potential penalty under the law, but “voluntary” denotes a higher level of intention that may play into a judge’s bond-setting decisions.
But, Lee added, Gish can re-visit the bond question at his preliminary hearing, by which time he should have an appointed attorney.
“Thank you, sir,” said Gish.
The Bathtub
Laramie County Deputy District Attorney William Edelman charged Gish on Friday with the lone manslaughter count.
An affidavit attached to the charge says Laramie County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded Thursday at about 7:27 p.m. to a home on Mary Way for a 911 call about a domestic disturbance.
The caller said someone had been stabbed. The victim, identified as Gregory Meyer, later died of a chest wound at a Cheyenne hospital.
A deputy arrived on scene and found Gish outside.
“I did the stabbing,” said Gish, according to the affidavit.
Gish told the deputy that “there had been some pushing” between himself and Meyer, and that Meyer had tried to punch him.
Meyer had been trying to fix the bathtub in the bathroom near Gish’s bedroom, Gish said.
A later portion of the affidavit says Gish is still legally married to his wife and lives at her home with his adult daughter, but that he and the wife have been long separated and are not romantically involved.
The wife was most recently in a relationship with Meyer, who frequents the house. Everyone was able to “coexist civilly without much animosity” usually, the affidavit relates from interviews on scene.
“Look, this is the bathroom I use,” Gish recalled telling Meyer before the stabbing. “This is my house, get out of the way.”
Gish elaborated to the deputy, saying, “I just wanted the f***in’ guy out of my house,” the affidavit continues. “He then hit my kid and hit me too.”
Gish was “showing him I had a knife, like get the f*** out of my house,” the document says, adding that, in Gish’s account, Meyer “got stabbed” when he came toward Gish.
Missed
Gish’s adult daughter said she heard the struggle in the bathroom and saw Meyer pushing Gish up against the wall.
Meyer tried to punch Gish, but missed and struck her in the face, the document relates from the daughter’s interview. That was when Gish brandished a “little silver knife” and Meyer charged, running into the knife himself, the affidavit adds.
The document says the daughter called 911 for an ambulance, but Meyer and Gish’s separated wife left in a vehicle instead.
The daughter expressed unfavorable opinions of Meyer.
Wife’s Interview
The wife told deputies she was in the kitchen during the scuffle. Meyer was trying to fix the bathroom near Gish’s bedroom when she heard a struggle, believing Gish’s daughter had gotten hit during the struggle, the wife said.
“She recalled Meyer saying something like, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that to happen,’” says document’s account of the wife’s interview.
The wife said she entered the hallway and watched Gish “lunge” at Meyer with a knife, according to the affidavit.
Suspect’s Interview
In a follow-up interview between Gish and a deputy, Gish, like his daughter, voiced negative opinions of Meyer, but said he was able to get along with him.
“Joseph (Gish) said he was the only one currently living in the house who worked and was paying the bills,” the affidavit notes.
“Joseph claimed Meyer was the aggressor and tried to punch him but struck (the daughter) instead,” the document says. “Joseph pulled his pocket knife out with the blade open and displayed it to Meyer … to ‘scare’ Meyer into leaving the house as he and (his daughter) told him to leave.”
Gish denied stabbing Meyer on purpose and said it happened in the course of the struggle, the affidavit adds.
“Later in the interview, Joseph maintained that he had armed himself with a knife in self-defense and feared Meyer,” the document says.
An autopsy performed Friday in Fort Collins, Colorado, returned a finding that Meyer died of a single stab wound to his left chest area, which injured his lung and heart. The wound was consistent with the capabilities of Gish’s 3.5-inch-blade pocket knife, the document says.
The affidavit notes that the men weighed about the same but at 5-foot-10, Gish was 2 inches taller than Meyer.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
