Editor's note: This story has been updated with information from Sebastian Belden's initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon.
CASPER — Nearly two weeks after a 16-year-old was shot in the head, a 21-year-old Cheyenne man appeared in Casper Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon charged with two counts of aggravated assault and battery in the case.
Sebastian Belden of Cheyenne was arrested Friday evening in the May 11 Mother’s Day shooting that Natrona County Sheriff’s Office investigators said involved the “mishandling of firearms.”
During an initial appearance before Judge Cynthia Sweet, Belden appeared by video and told the judge that he had recently moved from his 105 S. Washington St. address in Casper to Cheyenne.
“I have just gotten a job,” he said.
Belden told the judge that he also is a member of the Wyoming National Guard.
Sweet read the charges against Belden stemming from his alleged shooting of a 16-year-old who he had befriended while living at his former Casper address.
“Do you understand the charges against you?” Sweet asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Patrick LeBrun asked the judge to continue the $50,000 cash or surety bond initially set at his arrest. He said he was unaware that Belden had moved from Casper and characterized him as a threat to the community.
“He befriended a young person, 16 years old,” he said. “They have this indescribably ridiculous practice of pointing firearms at each other. … It ended up with the 16-year-old getting shot in the head.”
LeBrun said as a member of the Wyoming National Guard who went through boot camp and was trained on weapons, Belden was “somebody that knew better.”
$50,000 Bond
When asked by the judge what he had to say about his bond, Belden told Sweet that he turned himself in and “was cooperative with detectives.”
Sweet noted that the record shows Belden was cooperative with investigators, but she was going to continue the $50,000 cash or surety bond.
“His recent move to Cheyenne does cause concern for the court,” Sweet said.
NCSO spokesperson Kiera Hett reported earlier Tuesday that the arrest follows a nearly two-week investigation into the Mother’s Day shooting in the 100 block of South Washington Street.
Investigators learned that both Belden and the 16-year-old victim were “mishandling firearms and pointing loaded handguns at one another,” she said. “Belden pointed his handgun at the victim and discharged it, striking him.”
The victim remains hospitalized, and an investigation continues, Hett said.
LeBrun told the court Tuesday afternoon that it looks as though the teen “will live.”
An arrest affidavit in the case was not available Tuesday afternoon. Belden remains jailed at the
Natrona County Detention Center.
Natrona County Sheriff’s Office investigators were called into the South Washington Street case by the Casper Police Department, which needed assistance because it was dealing with a double shooting at Foxhill Apartments at about the same time.
The incident began with a 911 call Sunday, May 11, just after 7 p.m. informing a dispatcher that a juvenile was shot outside of a residence.
Once police arrived, they found the 16-year-old victim with a gunshot wound.
He was initially treated at Banner Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, then flown to Denver Children’s Hospital.
The Other Shooting
Meanwhile, an investigation into the double shooting at the Foxhill Apartments in the 1900 block of South Missouri Avenue just minutes before the Washington Street incident May 11 also continues.
Casper Police Department spokesperson Rebekah Ladd said officers have talked with several people and continue to actively investigate the case, and an update is “expected soon.”
Anyone with additional information is asked to call the department.
The shooting killed Anicio Bernard, 20, of Casper, after a confrontation in a second-floor apartment in Building 23 with another adult male. That male remains hospitalized, Ladd said, and the department did not have an updated condition on him.
A call reporting the Foxhill Apartments shooting came in a 6:51 p.m. on Mother’s Day, and a woman who lives on the floor below where the double-shooting happened described the scene the day after.
She told Cowboy State Daily that she heard what she thought was gunfire in the apartment right above their kitchen as they were about to make dinner Sunday.
“We felt, like, 12 gunshots go off, but we weren’t for sure because they are always moving furniture, banging on the floor,” said the woman of the upstairs neighbors, who asked not to use her name. “I peeked my head out in the hallway, and I heard a lady outside say someone needs to call 911.
“So, I ran out with my phone, and as soon as I opened the door there was one of the kids’ bodies right at my toes.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
