A Wheatland man originally charged on claims he brutally beat his friend after breaking into a vacant liquor store struck a plea agreement this week, two weeks before he was due to go to trial.
The Platte County Attorney’s Office charged Markus Gallegos in June with one count of aggravated burglary, which is punishable by between five and 25 years in prison and up to $50,000 in fines.
Platte County Attorney Doug Weaver wrote in a plea agreement Monday that in exchange for Gallegos’ guilty plea to the lesser charge of felony burglary, prosecutors will argue for a prison term of between five and 10 years.
Gallegos also would be required to pay $5,999 in restitution to the liquor store. If the Wyoming Department of Corrections employee tasked with investigating Gallegos’ life, history and current attitude recommends probation, “the state will not argue against it,” the plea agreement adds.
Also as part of that agreement, Gallegos stipulated that he “would agree to testify to the involvement of Kain Rutherford” in the burglary, the document says.
Gallegos had been scheduled to stand trial Nov. 17 in Platte County District Court.
That Night
Gallegos is accused of breaking into the shuttered Big A liquor store and attacking his drinking companion of the night, Kain Rutherford.
Following a trail of blood, liquor bottles, and neighborhood sightings of Gallegos, authorities found Rutherford alone, lying on the floor in the liquor store, covered in blood, and badly injured, court documents say.
He was rushed to a hospital.
A family member told Cowboy State Daily that week that Rutherford was in poor shape but had survived the attack.
That family member did not immediately respond to a Friday voicemail request for comment.
Rutherford’s phone number was available; he did not respond to a Thursday afternoon social media message request.
Nope, That’s Too Strong
The woman who’d called in to report Gallegos’ condition in the first place told the dispatcher that he’d left bottles of liquor in front of her home and she wanted officers to collect them, the case affidavit says.
Wheatland Police Department Sgt. Dalton Minsaas arrived at her home, and there found bottles of alcohol spattered with blood: one bottle of Rumple Mints, 100 proof; and two bottles of Blue Ice, 100 proof, says the document.
The woman, a longtime bartender herself, noted that no bars in town carry those 100 proof liquors.
Meanwhile, a Platte County Sheriff’s Deputy had found blood on the north sidewalk of South Street.
Putting the two together, Minsaas noted that the Big A Liquor store on South Street had been shut down for years, but was still stocked.
Minsaas and the deputy went to the shuttered liquor store, and Minsaas noticed that the side glass door where the liquor drive-up window had been broken, “and appeared to have been burglarized.”
“Deputy (Ryan) Lee and I peered into the liquor store and observed a male lying on the floor,” wrote Minsaas. “The male was covered in blood and appeared to be badly injured.”
He was also unresponsive. His breathing was strained. His eyes appeared swollen shut and his face and head bore severe injuries, wrote the sergeant.
No Shoes
The men called for medical personnel.
The deputy and officer also found a passport on the man identifying him, says the affidavit.
The document says that a pair of black, rubber-like sandals lay nearby and liquor bottles were scattered across the floor. Some of the bottles on the shelf matched those found at the woman’s home.
“I knew (Gallegos) was not wearing any shoes when he was contacted before this,” wrote Minsaas.
Once Gallegos was released from the hospital and taken to the Platte County Sheriff’s Office, a law enforcement agent (the affidavit doesn’t say which) interviewed him, and he admitted to being in the Big A liquor store and to having “a physical altercation with Rutherford,” says the document.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
