A Wheatland man accused of kicking police officers in January as they wrestled him away from the scene of a standoff where he’d wielded a hatchet has told the court that he’s wasn’t mentally well enough during that incident to be found guilty of a crime pertaining to it.
Chance Eastman, who turns 30 this year, was charged in January with one count of aggravated assault, two counts of felony police interference and a fourth count of misdemeanor police interference.
The first three each carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines, while the misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.
These charges stem from a Jan. 12 standoff in Wheatland where, police said at the time, they lobbed a pepper gas grenade into a basement in which Eastman hid after witnesses reportedly saw him wielding a hatchet overhead toward a woman.
Eastman pleaded both “not guilty” and “not guilty by reason of mental illness” at a March 11 arraignment hearing in Platte County District Court.
He was set for a July 21 jury trial, but District Court Judge Edward Buchanan on March 12 postponed that setting; because pleading “not guilty by reason of mental illness” triggers a mental health evaluation. The evaluation’s purpose is to determine whether the defendant, during the alleged crime, was so mentally ill that he couldn’t rationalize the wrongfulness of his conduct or conform his conduct to the law.
Eastman would then have to prove to a jury that it’s more than likely that his state on Jan. 12 fit that description of mental illness, in order to win acquittal on his not-guilty-by-reason-of-mental-illness plea.
That’s a different standard than the one typical trials, hinged on not-guilty pleas, use. A person is acquitted on a not-guilty plea when the state fails to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the charged crimes.
Court Documents Say
Platte County Attorney Douglas Weaver charged this case in Wheatland Circuit Court on Jan. 14, and it rose to the felony-level Platte County District Court on Jan. 22.
Wheatland Police Department Officer Jared Shaver responded to a call about a domestic disturbance at about 5:07 p.m. Jan. 12, says an affidavit Shaver wrote, now filed in the district court.
The caller said a male was threatening a female with either a hammer or a hatchet.
Wheatland Police Chief Bradley Otte and Officer Alex Windmeier also responded, and the three law enforcement officers spoke with a female whose name is redacted in court documents.
She was locked inside her truck, parked in the driveway in front a home on High Street, the affidavit says, adding that she’d locked herself in the truck after an argument with her boyfriend, Eastman.
“Chance retrieved a hatchet from the house and followed (redacted) outside,” the document relates from that interview. Shaver wrote that the female and neighbors all reported witnesses Eastman holding a hatchet over his head while standing at the truck’s driver’s side door, facing the female barricaded inside it.
A witness across the street had captured cellphone photos of that moment, Shaver added.
Eastman tried to pry the truck door open with the hatchet, but couldn’t get into the truck, so he headed back to the house, the affidavit says.
The female reportedly said that two days prior, Eastman had started a verbal argument with her then whipped her in the face with a pair of jeans, leaving visible marks on her face.
Otte and Shaver cleared the garage, then moved on to the house.
Platte County Sheriff’s Deputy Timothy Womack and Captain William Kirlin arrived on scene. The officers and deputies gathered a door key to the home from the female, unlocked the deadbolt of the door and found the door barricaded in place, the document says.
Shaver kicked the door open, he recalled in the affidavit.
Shaver, Windmeier, Womack and Kirlin met a stairway that led downstairs, and another leading to the main floor. Shaver, Windmeier and Kirlin held cover on the basement stairs. Womack covered the other set of stairs, the document says.
Someone – the affidavit does not say who – spoke with Eastman, who in turn refused to comply with orders and reportedly threatened the officers on scene.
Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Smith (no first name given) arrived on scene and provided cover with the others.
Otte decided to call in a K9 police dog, and Platte County Undersheriff Ward McConahay brought his K9 to the house, deploying it at about 5:53 p.m., wrote Shaver.
The dog was “ineffective” and pulled out of the home, Shaver added.
Shaver wrote that Otte then deployed pepper-spray grenades into the basement, where Eastman was “barricaded.”
Smith talked Eastman into coming out of the basement and up the stairs. As Eastman approached the door, Shaver entered the home and tried to restrain Eastman, who resisted arrest, the document says.
Shaver pinned Eastman to the interior wall, other officers helped pull Eastman from the home, tackling him to the ground outside it as the man “continued to resist, by thrashing around and not providing his hands as ordered,” says the affidavit.
Windmeier tased Eastman in his mid-back area, reportedly.
Officers restrained Eastman and moved him to a waiting ambulance to have his taser site examined. Officers then tried to put Eastman into a Wheatland Police Department vehicle for transport, but Eastman kicked Shaver’s left leg, the document says.
Shaver got Eastman into the vehicle and shut the door. Other personnel took Eastman to the Platte County hospital, where Eastman “again became aggravated and resistant” and kicked Cpl. (Alex) Fernandez in the left leg,” wrote Shaver.
Officers stayed overnight with Eastman while he stayed in the hospital for observation. He was released the next day from the hospital and taken to the Platte County Detention Center, the affidavit says.
