CHEYENNE — Through tears and with a shaky voice, the adoptive mother of a 50-pound 13-year-old admitted in a Cheyenne courtroom Monday morning she intentionally starved the boy to the point of pushing the teen close to death.
Angela Mittlestadt, 49, stood at a podium next to her attorney and quietly cried as she pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse.
With her long, dirty-blond hair draping down a black blazer over a black-and-yellow print blouse and black slacks, Mittlestadt answered “yes” to a series of questions establishing the scope of the abuse.
Did she fail to provide the boy sufficient food? asked Tom Fleener, her Laramie-based defense attorney.
“Yes.”
Was the denial of food deliberate?
“Yes.”
Did the denial of food cause serious bodily injury?
“Yes.”
Mittlestadt also answered “yes” when Assistant Laramie County District Attorney Jack Hatfield wanted clarification that starving the 13-year-old caused a “substantial risk of death” and “significant malnutrition.”
As the hearing progressed and Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher outlined the consequences of being a convicted felon, Mittlestadt grew more emotional, constantly dabbing at her eyes with tissues with unsteady hands.
In return for her guilty plea to aggravated child abuse, another charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse was dismissed.
The agreement also calls for a prison sentence of 15-17 years, instead of the up to 25 years she could have received for each of the two felony charges had she gone to trial and been convicted.
Judge Froelicher declined to agree to that reduced sentence Monday, instead scheduling a presentence evaluation. If the judge ultimately rejects the lesser prison time, Mittlestadt can revoke her guilty plea.
“I’m not going to make that decision today,” the judge said.
In the meantime, Darrick Mittlestadt, her husband and former Laramie County Fire District 1 fire chief, has elected to go to trial on the same aggravated child abuse charges, which begins Tuesday.
Hatfield said that Angela Mittlestadt is expected to testify at her husband’s trial.
“Both parties (the prosecution and defense) do intend to call her as a witness,” he said.
She’ll remain free on bond until sentencing, which has been tentatively scheduled for Dec. 14, the judge said.
‘Only Allowed To Eat One Meal A Day’
The investigation into the couple began June 22, 2025, after the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by a youth support agency in Douglas.
Angela Mittlestadt had dropped the then-13-year-old off at the Youth Development Center there, and the condition of the boy alarmed staff, according to an affidavit of probable caused filed in their cases.
“Douglas police officers noted that (the teen) was extremely thin and appeared severely malnourished,” the affidavit states. The teen’s “ribs, collarbones and other bones and joints were protruding and clearly visible on him due to how thin he was.”
The boy “also was missing much of the hair on his head,” according to an affidavit filed in the case.
The teen initially gave staff at the Youth Development Center another name and incorrect date of birth.
He told a Douglas police officer that, “I’m only allowed to eat one meal a day since there’s no point in giving me food,” the affidavit says.
During a follow-up forensic interview of the teen in Casper, he told a Child Advocacy Project interviewer that his mom, Angela Mittlestadt, had dropped him off and told him to knock on the door and tell them he “needed somewhere to live.”
When asked why he was told to do that, the teen replied, “I don’t know, she just told me that to tell them that for some reason.”
What She Said
A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office detective interviewed both parents June 23, 2025, after authorities took their younger adopted son, 6, into protective custody.
Angela Mittlestadt told the investigator that when she got the teen as a boy, he was homeless, malnourished and a “f***ed up kid with trauma.”
“I’m an idiot and thought I could help him,” she told the investigator, according to the affidavit. She alleged that he refused to do school, lacked feeling, remorse, empathy and “didn’t care about rewards or consequences.”
Angela Mittlestadt said the teen was malnourished because he refused to eat and rarely slept at night.
She also said he would “pee” and defecate in his room instead of the bathroom.
She said she had not asked for help because she felt the teen was not “anyone else’s problem.”
When she awoke June 22 and smelled “poop,” that was the last straw and she drove him to the center in Douglas, according to the affidavit.
What He Said
Darrick Mittlestadt told police that he was often away from the home because of his job and that he felt responsible for the situation.
“I failed everyone, because I didn’t do my job,” he said, according to the affidavit.
The teen told authorities that items had been taken from his room and that he never left the house in Cheyenne except to shower or brush his teeth.
He told his interviewer that he had not been out of the house for two years and was not allowed to leave his room, watch TV, play with his brother or go to the fire station with his dad, the affidavit says.
Darrick Mittlestadt denied that the teen had been in the house for years. He said he would walk around the property with the boy and look for cactus, but that the child was so thin and weak he could not use a shovel to dig.
So, he would dig cactus for him.
“Darrick acknowledged that (the teen) hadn’t been to a park, children’s museum or anything similar since they moved to Cheyenne almost two years ago,” the affidavit states.
He, too, said the teen lied about things like reading a book, completing schoolwork, or using the bathroom before urinating or defecating in his room.
He Could Get Up To 50 Years
Angela Mittlestadt is no longer living in Cheyenne and is staying with relatives in Colorado, her attorney told the court Monday, adding that this case is her first brush with the law.
“She’s lived in Colorado for the last year,” Fleener said. “She’s a 49-year-old woman making her first appearance in the court system.”
If convicted after his trial this week, Darrick Mittlestadt could face maximum penalties of up to 25 years on each of the two felony charges he faces.
That means convictions on both charges with maximum penalties ordered to be served consecutively could mean up to 50 years behind bars.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
