A 21-year-old Riverton, Wyoming, man who was shot in the torso after wrestling with an 85-year-old homeowner last August appeared in court Monday, where a judge decided the state has enough evidence to keep prosecuting him for unlawful entry.
Jeremy David Merta had months of recovery and health operations to endure before he could appear in Riverton Circuit Court, according to testimony given Monday at his preliminary hearing.
He sat next to his defense attorney Zachary Mahlum wearing a plaid shirt, his long hair bound on top of his head in a bun.
Riverton Circuit Court Judge Dan Stebner concluded that the state, represented by Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun, has enough evidence to prosecute Merta in the felony-level Fremont County District Court. The case now heads to that court.
LeBrun’s only witness Monday was Riverton Police Department Detective Peter McCall.
McCall described going to a home in Riverton after 11 p.m. Aug. 9, and finding Merta in the homeowner’s front yard with a gunshot wound to his abdomen, being treated by emergency medical personnel.
The homeowner, Wayne Williams, told law enforcement that he was sitting on his couch six feet from his front door when he heard a loud banging, kicking and yelling at the door. Alarmed, he grabbed a handgun from his bedroom and answered the door.
In His Own Words…
Williams told Cowboy State Daily at the time that he felt answering the door was a mistake.
“The guy was obviously irrational,” Williams said in an August interview with the outlet. “He was saying ‘they’ sent him to my house; ‘they’ said he owns my house, and I don’t – crazy, crazy stuff.”
The intruder, later identified as Merta, appeared drunk or under the influence of drugs. He was 6 inches taller than Williams, who stands roughly 5 feet, 3 inches tall.
The intruder barged into Williams’ home, Williams recalled. Williams tried firing off a shot with his pistol, but the gun only clicked. He’d forgotten to rack a round into the chamber, he said.
“Go ahead and shoot me,” said the intruder, according to Williams’ interview.
“I don’t know if he was trying to commit suicide at my hand or what he was doing,” Williams added in reflection.
Williams wrestled and pushed the man back outside, he said. Fortunately for the older man, the visitor was “kind of uncoordinated,” Williams said. They wrestled and grappled on the front porch.
It was a quick scramble in the dark, but Williams believes the intruder tripped on the top stair of his porch steps, causing him to tumble down the stairs. He took Williams down with him, the latter recalled.
“So we both fell down the stairs. I was on top of him at that point,” said Williams, adding that he and the intruder were both struggling to get to their feet.
Then Williams fired a single shot into the dark. Court documents indicate it was a .380-caliber bullet that entered Merta’s abdomen and exited through his back, leading to multiple and prolonged medical treatments.
Williams heard the intruder say, “I’ve been hit.”
These Treads
Once McCall was on scene he took note of Merta’s Nike basketball shoes, which were on the lawn. Their tread consisted of concentric circles, which matched tread markings on Williams’ damaged screen door, McCall testified Monday.
Mahlum had challenged the account of events given in court documents and based on Williams’ interview, asking McCall for evidence that Merta was the initial aggressor.
McCall pointed to the tread markings as proof that Merta was.
The case affidavit McCall wrote says he found fresh scratches on Williams’ face, arms, leg, and knee that night.
The fight left Williams worried and concerned, for a few weeks, unsure if he’d see Merta again, he told Cowboy State Daily during a follow-up interview Monday. As of Monday, those fears had abated, he added.
Williams said he doesn’t have lingering health woes from the fight.
He voiced surprise over Merta not being in jail currently.
Beers, José, Jager
McCall went to the Banner Health Medical Center in Casper to interview Merta on Aug. 12, he testified. The detective found the wounded man on a gurney after a recent health intervention – possibly a surgery, he said in court.
Merta recalled he’d started drinking with family members at a local bar around 5 p.m. that night, consuming beers, Jägermeister, and José Cuervo, McCall said.
Merta went home with his family members, then back to the bar, then back home.
The case affidavit says he left his home on foot, believing he was headed to the Cedar Bar, which is several blocks away from Williams’ home.
A female family member told law enforcement at the time that Merta was upset when he left the house, says the affidavit.
Merta told McCall that he blacked out at some point, and the next thing he remembered was waking with Williams standing over him and having been shot, the detective testified.
His female family member told investigators that she was worried about Merta and went out to look for him and found him in Williams’ yard with the emergency medical personnel already on scene, says the affidavit.
‘Excellent Job’
McCall did not try to take Merta to the Fremont County Detention Center because the jail would not take him in his poor condition.
So the detective instructed Merta to stay in touch with the authorities so he could make his later court dates, and Merta did an “excellent job” at that in the intervening months, while he was recovering.
He was in no shape to make an escape, McCall added, under LeBrun’s questioning.
After the hearing, Mahlum declined comment on Merta’s behalf.
The variation of unlawful entry Merta faces is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. It hinges on the theory that Merta broke into a home in order to commit battery inside it.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
