Washakie County’s top prosecutor has probable cause to keep prosecuting a local man accused of tormenting his own dog with six shots from a 9 mm pistol, a judge ruled Thursday.
Donald “Dudley” Wayne Wright, 59, of Worland was charged in February with cruelty to animals, using a gun to commit a felony, property destruction, two counts of breach of peace and three counts of stalking.
His case is now headed to the felony-level Washakie County District Court, where he may go to trial or establish a plea agreement.
Wright is accused of going into his back yard while drunk the night of Jan. 13, to shoot a 5-to-7-month old border-collie mix named Axel, after the dog ate Wright’s heart medication and tore up his house outside the town of Worland. Some bullets remain in Axel's body, and he has a plate in his jaw, among other injuries, his new guardian told Cowboy State Daily prior.
Wright’s attorney H. Richard Hopkinson argued at the man’s Thursday preliminary hearing in Worland Circuit Court that the state doesn’t have probable cause to keep prosecuting Wright on two felony charges – because Wright was merely trying to put his own dog down.
“The fact is that his intent was to put the dog down because of what it had done,” said Hopkinson. “The fact that he was a lousy shot doesn’t mean that he hadn’t made the attempt to put the dog down, and he wanted to stop any continued suffering by finishing killing the dog.”
Court documents say Wright shot the dog in his yard, then chased it to a next-door home of which he’s part-owner but in which he does not live and tried shooting it through the floorboards of a porch. Then he went into his home.
In the night, a woman who lives in the next-door house took the dog to the vet, and when Wright tried to find it the next morning to finish it off, he could not, the case affidavit says.
Hopkinson tried to verify in court that Axel, who has since been adopted by a local woman, was Wright’s dog. The deputy testifying said he wasn’t sure if it was Wright’s dog.
‘That’s Torture’
At some point Wright also told investigators that the dog had been attacking chickens. Washakie County Attorney Tony Barton rebutted that in Wright’s Thursday preliminary hearing, saying there weren’t chickens or chicken corpses found in the yard or home that day.
Barton also countered Hopkinson’s reasoning, saying the first felony with which Wright is charged – cruelty to animals – doesn’t fall apart if the person was trying to kill an animal.
The statute applies to someone who, while intending to kill an animal or make it suffer unduly, beats it with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates it.
Barton argued that Wright’s conduct fits that language, because even if he was intending to put the dog down, he did it in a way that caused “torture.”
“He didn’t shoot it once in the head, he apparently took it out into a darkened back yard at 9 o’clock at night in January, and had at it with a 9 mm,” said Barton. The dog hid under a porch, according to court testimony and a documented blood trail, said Barton.
“He didn’t get a flashlight, look under the porch, aim and shoot the dog,” the prosecutor continued. “The defendant went on top of the porch and fired wildly through the floorboards… Just fired wildly at the dog. That’s torture.”
Defendants charged with animal cruelty can defend themselves by saying they fall under certain exceptions to the charge, such as humanely destroying an animal, or managing livestock.
If Wright wants to argue to a jury in the felony-level court that he was defending chickens he may do so, said Barton, who nevertheless called that theory into doubt.
Axel was shot six times, allegedly by his owner. (Wyoming Pit Bull Post) 
Axel was shot six times, allegedly by his owner. (Wyoming Pit Bull Post)
Going Up
Worland Circuit Court Judge Edward G. Luhm said regardless of who owned the dog, the evidence in this case bears enough probable cause to get the case to the higher court.
That’s not a finding of guilt: only of enough evidence to let the prosecution continue.
“(Axel was) shot multiple times in a non-lethal manner, but a serious manner, over a course of time,” said Luhm.
The count of felony cruelty to animals is punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of $5,000. Wright’s second felony charge of using a gun while committing a felony, carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Luhm said the gun charge also had enough evidence behind it to rise to the higher court, and the misdemeanor charges will follow as a matter of course.
The remaining six charges are all misdemeanors. They are:
Property destruction (punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines)
Two counts of breach of peace (up to six months and $750 each)
Three counts of stalking (up to one year and $750 each).
The stalking charges stem from claims that while hunting for Axel, Wright harassed the women who live in the home next door.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
