One of the two men who broke into a Casper home two years ago — not expecting to encounter a scrappy sheriff’s deputy the deputy’s pregnant, pistol-packing wife — has to keep serving his 22-to-25-year prison term, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
Joel Lee Wilson, 42, appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court after his Feb. 28 sentencing, arguing that his trial jury didn’t have enough evidence to convict him of aggravated burglary and robbery.
The former is punishable by between five and 25 years in prison. The latter by up to 10 years in prison.
Wilson’s argument was that prosecutors wrongly relied on text messages between Wilson and his co-defendant, Daniel Hemmer, to show that the pair intended to steal anything from the home, and that the jury didn't have enough evidence to convict him.
Watch Out For Mama
The morning of Nov. 18, 2023, Casper Police Department personnel responded to the home of a Natrona County Sheriff’s Deputy, his pregnant wife, and their young daughter.
The deputy had just finished an overnight shift at the jail and had been sleeping in the couple’s bedroom when his wife heard knocking and scratching at the front door.
Through the doorbell camera, the wife saw two men, Wilson and Hemmer, standing at the door.
She told her daughter to wake the man of the house.
Wilson shouldered the front door open, and he and Hemmer entered the home.
“What’s up mother-f***er,” said Wilson to the pregnant woman, before proceeding into the home. Hemmer “hesitated and looked around the home as if he was in the wrong place,” says a Wyoming Supreme Court order District Court Judge Benjamin Kirven filed Tuesday, in his temporary capacity serving as a justice on the high court.
Wilson and the deputy argued, then brawled in the bedroom.
The deputy later described that fight as a fight for his life, which injured his face and knee.
Hemmer, meanwhile, approached the couple’s daughter.
That was when the deputy’s wife grabbed a handgun from the nightstand and pointed it at Hemmer, causing him to flee.
Wilson and the deputy spilled into the living room, then Wilson left.
Both men were charged and ultimately sentenced to prison.
What A Conspiracy
The case judge, Natrona County District Court Judge Kerri Johnson, reasoned that the string of text messages in which the men discussed making money in the hours leading up to the home invasion were permissible hearsay evidence.
She said the messages were the product of a conspiracy between codefendants, says Kirven’s opinion.
Wilson had argued on appeal that Johnson’s conclusion drew from circular reasoning, relying on the text messages themselves to claim they were conspiratorial — and that they were allowed into the trial evidence pool.
But Johnson judged correctly, the Wyoming Supreme Court concluded. Plenty of evidence beyond those messages supported the idea of a conspiracy between the two men, the opinion adds.
The opinion was unanimous.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
