A Sheridan, Wyoming, man pleaded guilty Thursday to threatening his estranged wife with a shotgun last October and could face between three and five years in prison if a judge accepts his plea agreement.
Oscar Gaona, who turns 44 this year, was originally charged with two counts of aggravated assault in Sheridan County, but only pleaded guilty to one of those counts during his change-of-plea hearing Thursday.
Court documents say that on Oct. 9, Oscar Gaona leveled a shotgun at his estranged wife, Alina Gaona, and fired it at her as she fled.
She took refuge in the cold running water of a ditch that October evening. When her husband left the area, she fled into her home and locked the door. When he arrived and pounded on her door, she called 911, screaming for help, Alina Gaona told Cowboy State Daily at the time.
Sheridan County Sheriff’s Deputies converged at the home at that moment, confronted and eventually arrested Oscar Gaona.
The Deal
A plea agreement between Oscar Gaona, his own attorney Anna Malmberg and Sheridan County deputy attorney Nicholas Vanatta says Oscar agrees to support the prosecutor’s argument for a three-to-five-year prison sentence. Vanatta has agreed to drop one of the two aggravated assault charges.
Each of those charges had carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The case judge, Sheridan County District Court Judge Darci A.V. Phillips, does not have to accept the plea agreement. If she rejects it to sentence Oscar to a term of more than five years in prison, he won’t get to withdraw his guilty plea, the agreement says.
Oscar is scheduled to be sentenced May 6.
That Day
The morning of Oct. 9, Oscar Gaona’s then-estranged-wife Alina Gaona was scheduled to go into work at a local bar and restaurant.
The front driver’s side tire on her truck was flat. She called in late to work, lugged out a full-size spare and changed the tire. She took the flattened tire to an auto shop in town, where the workers told her they couldn’t fix it: It had three identical holes that resembled screwdriver punctures, they said, according to Alina’s interview.
The tread on the other three tires was wearing low and winter was on its way. Alina bought a full set of new tires.
Still, she was arguing with herself about whether the puncture marks could have had anything to do with Oscar, she said at the time.
One Amazing Cheeseburger
She finally made it to work and busied herself cleaning the bar and restaurant, where she opened up to a coworker who is also a family friend.
“I told her, ‘I feel like he’s been following me,’” recalled Alina. “‘I feel like the times I’ve seen his truck it was actually him.’”
The woman and Alina both concluded that no one else in Alina’s life would have popped her tire with a screwdriver.
“I don’t have any other drama in my life, nobody that would wish me ill,” Alina said.
Alina got off work at 4:30 that afternoon. It was oddly warm in Sheridan, about 80 degrees, and she decided to visit an “amazing” food truck the Crazy Woman Saloon operates and gather her thoughts over a mushroom Swiss cheeseburger.
She dodged a boisterous group of men visiting on the patio and took her burger inside, where the bar was quiet. She ruminated. She called her mom.
Alina tried but couldn’t grasp any sense of what Oscar could be thinking or planning, she recalled.
Just as she concluded that Oscar had been following her, he burst through the bar’s side door, shouting and demanding to know who she was there with, Alina said.
Alina countered saying she was eating alone; she said she asked Oscar to leave. The bartender also asked him to leave, and he did.
The cheeseburger didn’t taste the same after that.
“Every person that came in after that, I was looking at the door,” she said. She felt jumpy, so she went to a different restaurant to meet with some friends.
Text Wall
Also that afternoon, Oscar kept texting Alina, according to a screenshot of her text messages Alina sent to Cowboy State Daily.
She felt frazzled, and suspected Oscar was trying to bait her into going home, to ambush her, she said at the time.
Alina said she asked a male friend for a ride home, adding that she now wishes she’d called for a Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office deputy to meet her there instead.
No Truck Though
As her friend pulled into the driveway and dropped Alina off, Alina relaxed a little: Oscar’s truck wasn’t in the driveway.
Little did she know, his truck was parked behind the building, and Oscar sat waiting on the patio, she said.
He came out, confronted her, rushed up the stairs and shouldered a loaded shotgun with surprising swiftness, she said.
It was her 12-gauge, which she kept under the bed of an unused bedroom, she said.
From the apartment balcony, Oscar pointed the shotgun at Alina’s friend’s truck, according to her interview and court documents filed in the case.
The friend, who had offered to stay and confront Oscar before Alina told him not to, had already shifted back into drive on the roadway and was completely oblivious, she said.
But she saw the gun, Alina recalled, and she ran.
A single shot sounded, court documents say.
Oscar emerged from the building, caught up to Alina and tried to drag her back into the house, she said. That’s a detail that didn’t make it into the affidavit because, according to her, she was stress-fried when she gave her police interview.
Alina kicked Oscar away and fled for an irrigation ditch behind a tree line. She believes Oscar lost sight of her as she hunkered into the running water.
On The Other Side Of The Door
Later, she noticed his truck lurking in the area as if he were searching for her. Once she lost sight of it she ran back to her apartment, locked her metal door and spoke with a 911 emergency dispatcher. Through the window, she watched the truck creep back toward the apartment, she said.
Though he still had a key somewhere, Alina said, Oscar was yelling, tugging and pounding at the door, demanding to talk to her.
“He’s on the other side of the door,” Alina told 911, she recalled, weeping. “He’s going to get through this f***ing door.”
Just then, Sheridan County Sheriff’s deputies converged on the home, found Oscar outside and confronted him before arresting him, Alina said.
Sheridan County Sheriff's Deputy Shaun Pushcar unholstered his gun and had it at the low ready position for about 12 seconds, but didn't hold Oscar at gunpoint, Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez confirmed to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday, after reviewing body camera footage of the event.
Oscar told deputies he didn’t mean to fire the gun, says the affidavit.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
