The Mexican national accused of trying to ram numerous travelers in the Snake River Canyon two summers ago was not drunk, prosecutors said this week.
Ramon Gabriel Chavez Cruz remains in custody, and still faces seven counts of aggravated assault and one count of reckless driving as his case ascends to felony-level court this week, Lincoln County Attorney Spencer Allred told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
If Chavez Cruz is convicted on all eight counts, he faces up to 70.5 years in prison and $70,750 in fines.
Allred’s deputy prosecutor John Olson on Tuesday asked Kemmerer Circuit Court Judge Thomas Deering to dismiss a ninth count: causing serious bodily injury while driving drunk. That’s a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
“There was no alcohol involved and a very minute amount of controlled substance,” Olson’s motion says.
Deering agreed there’s “good cause” to drop the ninth count, and granted the motion.
Allred elaborated in an interview.
“Based on the toxicology reports we had, we believed the best route to go was focus on the aggravated assaults we’ve already filed,” he said.
The court also held a contested preliminary hearing Tuesday, where Chavez Cruz argued that the state doesn’t have probable cause to keep prosecuting him in the felony-level Lincoln County District Court, said Allred.
Allred ruled after the hearing the court found probable cause to send the remaining eight counts to the higher court.
“He’ll have his arraignment here in the coming weeks,” the prosecutor added.
The Affidavit
Chavez Cruz was arrested the night of June 4, 2024, after waging what court documents describe as repeated attempts to ram his truck into vehicles in the Snake River Canyon on U.S. Highway 89 between Alpine and Jackson.
A court document the prosecutor’s office filed Tuesday shows a 21-mile stretch of canyon, highlighted in red.
The case affidavit by Mike Merritt, who was a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper in 2024, compiles statements by drivers and their families. Those witnesses said they maneuvered in reverse and swerved into barrow ditches to escape Chavez Cruz’s head-on chases.
“The individual in the vehicle that attempted to collide with us deliberately crossed the centerline at a high rate of speed, targeted our vehicle, and attempted to kill my family,” the affidavit relates from the account of Roy Walters, who said he was in the back seat of a family vehicle while his son Eamonn drove, and his wife, Kate, sat in the front passenger seat. “By the grace of God and my son’s quick reactions the collision was barely avoided.”
Because the alleged rampage crossed into Teton County as well, Chavez Cruz faced prosecution in Teton County first.
And he spent a stint of that prosecution in Colorado, facing other charges there.
Chavez Cruz struck a plea agreement with the Teton County Attorney’s Office, under which he pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated assault and received a split sentence: 180 days in jail followed by three years’ probation – with the threat of a 2 1/2- to 4 1/2-year prison sentence remaining if he fails probation.
He then was taken into Lincoln County’s custody, where Allred vowed to prosecute Chavez Cruz “to the full extent of the law.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
