CASPER — A 21-year-old Cheyenne man pleaded guilty Tuesday in Natrona County District Court to shooting a 16-year-old boy in the head as they played “quick draw” with loaded firearms on Mother’s Day.
Sebastian A.K. Belden entered a plea deal with the Natrona County District Attorney’s office that had him plead guilty to one charge of aggravated assault and battery while a second similar charge was dropped.
Both charges stem from a pair of incidents on May 11, 2025, in Casper.
The first involved the actual shooting, which caused serious injury, while the second charge involved threatening to use a “drawn deadly weapon,” according to court documents.
Belden stood beside his attorney, Dylan Rosalez, in a green top and orange jail bottoms as Rosalez outlined the plea deal to Judge Kerri Johnson.
Johnson asked Belden if he understood the agreement and the potential penalty for the remaining charge against him.
“Yes, your honor,” Belden said.
The judge then asked him how he would plead and Belden said guilty.
The judge asked him to explain what happened and if he caused “serious bodily injury to T.C.” the 16-year-old.
Belden’s reply was hard to discern in the courtroom.
“Were you pointing the firearm at him in a reckless manner?” the judge asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Belden replied.
‘Quick Draw’
Natrona County Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson asked the court to consider adding information from two pages in the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office affidavit to the guilty plea record
The affidavit outlines Belden and the teen playing “quick draw” with loaded weapons to further establish his “recklessness” with the firearm.
The affidavit reveals that Belden told police he and the teen made it a habit of pointing firearms at each other.
“Belden described the behavior as through it was a game of ‘quick draw,’” the affidavit states. “Belden agreed the description was accurate.”
The judge agreed to take the plea deal under advisement pending the result of a pre-sentence investigation.
Rosalez asked the judge to consider amending Belden’s $50,000 cash or surety bond to a personal recognizance bond of the same amount.
“His criminal history is very minimal, and he has friends in Casper he could stay with,” Rosalez said. “He has significant remorse for what happened here.
"He is not the same person he was.”
Nelson argued that the bond was appropriate due to the nature of the charge and the facts surrounding the incident.
He again pointed to Belden and the teen playing “quick draw” with loaded weapons and the fact that Belden bought the gun for the teen.
Nelson also said Belden’s ties to the community were not strong after his move to Cheyenne and there was no record provided of the friends he could stay with.
The judge agreed with Nelson.
“I would find that the bond that is set is appropriate,” she said.
She ordered a pre-sentence investigation.
911 Call
The case against Belden stems from a 911 call on May 11 at 7:06 p.m. about a 16-year-old boy having been shot in the head.
Casper Police were responding to a separate shooting and asked Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputies to go to the scene.
When they arrived at a home on the corner of First Street and South Washington, they found the teen with a single gunshot wound to the left side of his forehead, above the left eye, and an exit wound behind the teen’s left ear.
The police affidavit states deputies found a loaded handgun belonging to the teen with a round in the chamber.
They found Belden’s firearm in the yard where he had tossed it. It was loaded and had a round in the chamber.
Initially, Belden told a Natrona County Sheriff’s Office investigator that the shooting was a “one-in-a-million-fluke kind of thing because the safety on my gun was on.”
“I didn’t even know I had a live round in the chamber,” Belden told the investigator.
Witnesses, including Belden’s fiancée, told police both Belden and the teen had weapons that afternoon, and that Belden frequently took his Taurus G3 9 mm from his waistband and pointed it at the teen’s head.
“During most of those incidents, (his fiancée) told Belden to put the firearm away,” the affidavit states.
Belden eventually confessed in a May 21 follow-up interview with authorities that he pulled the weapon from his waistband, pointed it at the teen, manipulated the safety lever to “make sure nothing bad happened.”
He agreed with an investigator that the only way it could have gone off was that “his finger was on the trigger,” according to the affidavit.
The teen was treated at Banner Wyoming Medical Center and then flown to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver.
During interviews with Belden’s fiancée and forensic interviews with 12-year-old and 14-year-old minor girls who had witnessed the shooting, investigators were told that Belden asked them to lie to law enforcement and tell them he tripped over something, and that is what caused his weapon to go off.
No Animosity
All three of the females told investigators that there was no animosity between the pair, and Belden’s fiancée told deputies that he had bought a SCCY handgun for the 16-year-old.
Investigators found the purchase forms for both of the weapons on March 28 and April 16.
The affidavit states that a video at the store where the SCCY handgun was bought showed Belden’s fiancée and the teen were with him.
Belden also wrote an apology letter to the teen’s family and a representative of his delivered the letter to the Casper Police Department, asking it to be given to the teen’s family.
The letter was given to the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office, the affidavit states.
“The note expressed regret and remorse on behalf of Belden for hurting (the teen),” the affidavit states. “The note also indicated that the shooting was a ‘terrible accident’ and asked for the (teen’s) family’s forgiveness.”
The aggravated assault and battery charge carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
