PINEDALE — A Wyoming judge on Wednesday sentenced a Daniel man who made headlines globally for torturing a wolf to supervised probation, with an 18-to-24-month prison term possible if he fails probation.
That’s in accordance with Cody Roberts’ plea agreement and the guilty plea he gave to felony animal cruelty in March.
He is also to avoid hunting, shed hunting, fishing, alcohol, bars and liquor stores during his 18-month probation term. He’s to pay a $1,000 fine, a $300 victim’s compensation fee, $40 for court automation, a $10 indigent legal service fee and $75 for his addiction assessment.
Another $4,000 fine may apply if he fails probation.
He’s also to undergo counseling or treatment, said Sweetwater County District Court Judge Richard Lavery, who has been filling in for a Sublette County judge who recused herself from the case.
The judge called the crime disturbing, and referenced the public’s outcry over it — mostly from people who don’t live in Wyoming.
Though not itemized in the plea agreement, Lavery added a requirement that Roberts notify his probation agent of any out-of-state travel.
As a convicted felon, he’ll lose his gun and voting rights for life, unless those are restored later.
Roberts had apologized publicly at his March 5 change-of-plea hearing in Sublette County District Court.
On Wednesday, Roberts appeared in court again, this time for sentencing, alongside his attorney Robert Piper and opposite Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich.
He wore jeans, a dark suit coat, a pale blue shirt and a tie. Around 18 people not counting press and court personnel sat in the gallery, more than a dozen of those on his side.
Neither the defense nor state produced any witnesses for sentencing.
Appropriate, Prosecutor Says
Melinkovich said many are dissatisfied with the outcome in this case, but “the state is not.” The agreement is appropriate, he added.
The prosecutor quoted from what he called some of his favorite paragraphs in a Wyoming Supreme Court case, Wright v State.
A sentencing judge, related Melinkovich from the case, “Must isolate himself from, one: the sob-sister type who pressures for leniency on the basis of the convicted person's humanity, without consideration of the injured victims and other pertinent factors, and two: the vengeful, blood-at-any-cost type who pressures for hanging without consideration of the human nature of the convicted one and the circumstances surrounding him and the crime itself.”
When it was Piper’s turn to give a statement the defense attorney said that, “My colleague has stolen my thunder. We have nothing to add.”
Roberts declined to speak as well, though he’d given an apology in March that, Lavery said Wednesday, convinced the judge of Roberts’ remorse.
This is one of the last sentencing hearings over which Lavery will preside before his state-required retirement later this month, as he turns 70.
“I have to be honest with you, Mr. Roberts, the charge in this case is disturbing,” said the judge. “In Wyoming, we have a long history with what we statutorily define as predators, and birds.”
Predators can be taken under the law, but not cruelly, said Lavery.
Living in Sublette County, the beauty of nature is right outside Roberts’ door, the judge said, adding that that carries responsibility.
The judge said it wasn’t a problem for Roberts to capture the wolf, but “keeping that animal for a period of time ... under the conditions it was kept, was cruel.”
Lavery repeated something he’d said in March: his office has received a deluge of emails from people trying to sway the case.
But he’s not a politician and can’t be swayed, he said.
In the course of sending those emails off to his IT department for sorting, said Lavery, he’d catch the subject line or opening line, and note that most people outraged aren’t from Wyoming. They’re from out-of-state and upset over how Wyoming handles its wildlife.
That’s an issue for the Wyoming Legislature, not the court, said Lavery.
As of now, the judge said, “Our Game and Fish folks are second to none,” and their conservation work has given Wyomingites a “front row seat to the beauty of nature.”
He urged Roberts to develop a relationship with his probation agent, take advantage of his probation term, and curb any alcohol habit he may have.
“I think there are some things you can get out of this probation by doing it right,” said Lavery, asking Roberts “to live a healthy life, and to keep your wits about you, and to consider your actions.”
Lavery could have rejected the plea agreement and sentenced Roberts to any term up to two years in prison and $5,000 in fines under the law, but had he done so, the plea agreement would have allowed Roberts to undo his guilty plea and go to trial or renegotiate a new agreement.
“Mr. Roberts, good luck — and we are adjourned,” said Lavery.
Last Month
According to a factual basis Melinkovich gave the court at Roberts’ change-of-plea hearing March 5, the man captured a gray wolf in the daytime of Feb. 29, 2024, under circumstances the prosecutor doesn’t know exactly.
Earlier witness statements indicate the capture happened on private land in a predator zone in Sublette County, Melinkovich said at the time.
Roberts kept the wolf through the day and into the evening, then killed it, said the prosecutor.
But first, that evening, Roberts brought the animal to an establishment in Daniel, asking if anyone in the bar had lost a dog, Melinkovich continued.
A bar patron watched Roberts pick up the wolf and place it on the ground with a leash on it. It walked with difficulty and limped into the bar, where it lay against a wall and near a coat rack, said Melinkovich.
Roberts posed for a photograph and video in which he’d knelt, pulled the wolf’s head toward his own and tried to kiss it, prompting the wolf to growl, added the prosecutor.
Later Roberts carried it out of the bar “like a baby,” Melinkovich said.
The prosecutor said that had this case gone to trial as it was originally scheduled to in March, an expert witness would have testified that wolves that are physically able to avoid humans try to do so.
This wolf’s apparent disinterest in fleeing revealed that it was unable to do so, asserted Melinkovich from that account.
Melinkovich’s version of events was “pretty close” to Roberts’ recollection of them, the defendant said under questioning by Lavery.
Roberts said he didn’t dispute the account.
During his prosecution, Roberts remained out of jail on a signature bond.
This Saga
The incident with the wolf exploded into international headlines, sparking outrage across the globe from sportsmen and animal rights activists, and it put both the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Wyoming’s wildlife management laws under a microscope.
Roberts was indicted last August by a grand jury. Felony animal cruelty carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.
The indictment followed claims that Roberts ran over a wolf with a snowmobile, brought it injured and muzzled into a bar in Daniel, taunted it and later killed it.
He originally paid a $250 fine for possessing wildlife.
The citation was from a part of law that doesn’t actually match the nature of the allegations, however, which could be one of the reasons Roberts’ felony case didn’t fall to a double jeopardy issue. The other is that the citation and felony charge contain different elements.
Melinkovich had sought to wage a more serious prosecution in the case in 2024, but struggled with the evidence he had at the time, he told Cowboy State Daily in an August phone interview.
“It took so long because evidence needed to be processed,” Melinkovich said. “We finally got all the evidence back from processing in November (2024).”
The prosecutor didn’t think it made sense to undertake grand jury proceedings over the holidays, he said.
As January turned to February 2025, a compound bow murder diverted his focus, Melinkovich added.
He requested the grand jury in June, and it convened in the second and third weeks of August, Melinkovich said.
Witnesses
As to why Melinkovich called the grand jury rather than launching a charge on his own probable cause narrative of the evidence, Melinkovich indicated there wasn’t enough evidence for that.
The investigation had stalled prior because people didn’t want to talk to law enforcement, he said.
“I speculate that (silence) is because of such national and international pressure, and people’s fear of being doxed if people knew they knew information — or were (in the bar) that night,” said Melinkovich.
Witnesses generally don’t have to talk to law enforcement, but a grand jury can subpoena people and make them talk, with some Constitution-based exceptions.
He declined to say whether those reticent sources produced the missing pieces, saying that would disclose the confidential grand jury witness testimony.
Though already penalized, Roberts could 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.
Legal Arguments
Roberts’ attorney Piper argued in court in January that Wyoming’s exception to its animal cruelty statute — rendering immune from prosecution acts of hunting, capture, killing and destruction not otherwise prohibited by law — should block Roberts from being prosecuted.
Lavery later denied that motion.
“I tend to think the defendant’s broad definition of the predator exception goes too far,” said Lavery at the time. “It just seems a bridge too far to say the state can’t pursue a case that constitutes torture or torment to an animal (under that exception).”
That echoed in part Melinkovich’s argument that Roberts’ encounter with the wolf was not one long capture, and that the portion of law during which Roberts allegedly behaved cruelly was a “possession” of the wolf, which isn’t a carveout under the law.
Upend Wyoming's Laws
The argument had hinged upon whether Melinkovich’s theory — that Roberts committed an act of cruelty not allowed by law and not covered by the exceptions — would upend Wyoming’s laws allowing wildlife hunting sports that could cause an animal to suffer.
Piper gave examples like trapping, bow hunting and black powder rifle hunting.
Amid testimony over this case, the state Legislature added a ban on torturing wildlife to its animal cruelty statute last year.
Piper argued that this act shows that the law didn’t cover Roberts’ conduct already.
Roberts captured the wolf in late February 2024, before the law was changed, reportedly.
State Of Mind
Melinkovich countered in his argument, saying his interpretation of the law and decision to pursue a felony case on that don’t jeopardize hunting and trapping in Wyoming.
That’s because the state’s definition for torture or torment includes a state of mind, he said.
The definition calls torment and torture “every act, omission or neglect whereby the willful and malicious infliction of pain or suffering is caused, permitted or allowed to continue when there is a reasonable remedy or relief.”
To torture an animal illegally, a person must harbor willfulness and malice toward that act in his mind, Melinkovich said.
“There’s nowhere any risk whatsoever that a person hunting, lawfully hunting, can be subject to these statutes, because the intent is not there,” added the prosecutor.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
