CASPER — A 20-year-old Cheyenne man will spend seven to nine years in prison for a drunken night of partying that ended with him pistol-whipping a man and shooting at another in a Casper neighborhood last August.
Jeremy David Lakey stood beside his attorney Dylan Rosalez on Thursday in Natrona County District Court as Judge Catherine Wilking imposed the sentence.
Lakey pleaded guilty in a deal to two charges of aggravated assault and battery for the Aug. 31, 2024, attack. The deal resulted in three other charges being dropped.
Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Meyer told the judge that he would “never understand” the circumstances that led Lakey to do what he did and acknowledged the charges represented Lakey’s first felony.
“What we do have here is a violent crime,” Meyer said. “A bullet a little to the left or a little to the right and we are talking about a life sentence.”
Meyer asked Wilking to impose the seven-to-nine-year sentence to be service concurrently and for the judge to consider the state’s boot camp for young offenders as part of the sentence.
Rosalez asked the judge for a suspended sentence of eight to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised probation.
“Mr. Lakey is a young man,” Rosalez said. “Prior to this (incident) he had his life on the right path.”
Rosalez said Lakey had been working as an apprentice electrician and had been devoted to caring for his girlfriend and a young son.
“He has a lot of regret and remorse about what happened,” Rosalez said. “He is a young man who can get his life together. … He knows now how important the company he keeps is.”
Nothing To Say
Lakey told the judge that he did not have anything additional to say.
Wilking acknowledged receiving the pre-sentence investigation that showed he had no prior felonies and that the court received three letters sent from Lakey’s girlfriend, her mom and her grandmother on his behalf.
Court records show that in her letter, Lakey’s girlfriend characterizes him as a devoted father and a diligent worker.
“Jeremy left the reservation with almost nothing and has amazed me at his drive and perseverance to be the person and father he could be,” she wrote.
The grandmother wrote that Lakey had a difficult childhood without a father’s influence in his life and a mother who was in jail for drug offenses when she first met him.
Wilking said her review of the case showed that probation was not an option.
“The level of violence that occurred is astonishing,” the judge said.
Wilking pointed out the charges involved two victims and the use of a weapon,and then sentenced him to seven to nine years on both aggravated assault and battery charges. The charges will be served concurrently, she said.
Wilking also “reluctantly” agreed that he should be considered for the state’s youthful offender program. Lakey was given credit for 244 days already served in jail.
How He Got Here
Court records show the case resulted from Lakey’s actions on Aug. 31 against a 21-year-old who was riding in a car with Lakey and Lakey’s friend to go buy alcohol.
Lakey stopped the vehicle and pulled his pistol and then listed some names, asking the 21-year-old if any of those he named were his friends. The victim told police later that he lied by saying he was not friends with those named, and that he was then pistol-whipped by Lakey.
At the plea hearing Lakey agreed he did hit the other man with his pistol.
The second charge involved Lakey shooting at the cousin of the victim when he pulled up in a car with two other relatives of the victim. The cousin had challenged Lakey, according to the police affidavit.
At his plea hearing, Lakey used an Alford plea for the second charge — letting the prosecution outline the facts of the charge and then he pleaded guilty to it. An Alford plea is an acknowledgement there’s enough evidence for a conviction.
Police pulled a 9 mm bullet from the driver’s side pillar of the vehicle where the second victim had been sitting and found a spent casing and two live rounds at the location.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
