A Sublette County grand jury on Wednesday greenlit the indictment of Daniel man Cody Roberts for cruelty to animals, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of $5,000, the county’s top prosecutor says.
The decision follows a secretive grand jury proceeding that Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich requested in June. The grand jurors reviewed evidence throughout the second and third weeks of this month, then returned a “true bill” prompting the indictment, says a Wednesday statement by Melinkovich.
At least nine members of the 12-person jury had to call for the indictment to see it filed in the Sublette County District Court, state law says.
Snowmobile
Roberts ran over a wolf with a snowmobile, brought it muzzled into a bar, then shot it in February 2024, according to videos and witness interviews.
Roberts paid $250 last March toward a citation for violating Wyoming Game and Fish regulations against possessing wildlife.
Though already penalized, Roberts can still be charged with a different law for the same conduct — if the newer charge differs enough in its elements from the citation to satisfy a judge that Roberts’ right against double jeopardy isn’t being violated.
The incident with the wolf exploded into international headlines, sparking outrage across the globe from sportsmen and animal rights activists alike; and it put both the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Wyoming’s wildlife management laws under scrutiny.
In its 2025 legislative session, the state passed a law criminalizing cruelty to wildlife.
But prior to that, the state already had an felony animal cruelty law on the books, which was routinely charged in cases of domestic animals. But it also applied when any one “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.”
Roberts could not be reached by publication time.
Because They Can Demand Testimony
Indicting people by grand jury is rare across Wyoming’s state courts, but not unheard of.
Every day across Wyoming, prosecutors charge people via complaint. That is, they compile probable cause statements from law enforcement personnel into an affidavit, find the charges that fit those statements and file them in the local circuit court.
In the case of felonies, the prosecutor must pit his evidence against a defendant’s cross-examination at a preliminary hearing if he wants to show probable cause and launch the case into the felony-level trial court.
That is, unless the defendant opts to skip a preliminary hearing.
With grand juries, the deliberations that lead to a probable cause finding happen behind closed doors in secrecy, without a defense attorney around to ask contradictory questions. And the indictments file directly in the felony-level, or district court.
A handful of attorneys who have managed grand jury proceedings told Cowboy State Daily in prior interviews that there are different reasons to go that route.
A key reason among those — and a fair guess of what drove Sublette County to call a grand jury — is that grand juries can subpoena witnesses and make them talk, Rock Springs-based attorney Jason Petri said last month.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
