A Laramie County jury deliberated for less than 90 minutes Friday before convicting Darrick Mittlestadt, former fire chief of Laramie County Fire District No. 1, of two counts of aggravated child abuse for nearly starving his adopted 13-year-old son to death.
Mittlestadt, 50, was taken into custody immediately and will remain in jail until sentencing Dec. 28. He faces up to 50 years in prison.
He remained stoic as the verdict was read.
Laramie County District Judge Peter Froelicher ordered him remanded to the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office and set a $500,000 cash bond.
Mittlestadt had been free on a $15,000 bond. The judge also ordered him to surrender his passport.
Victim In Courtroom
The victim, now 14 and identified in court as EM because he is a minor, was in the courtroom when the verdict was read.
He sat beside the prosecution table with his foster mother, who hugged him after the conviction.
Several other supporters sat with him in the front row.
EM, who testified Tuesday, appeared at ease when he entered.
Soon after he sat down with the foster mother who has cared for him for the past year, she took a selfie with him.
Other than that smile, he showed little visible reaction but seemed in good spirits.
His supporters remained silent but were clearly pleased.
Assistant District Attorney Jack Hatfield escorted EM to the Laramie County District Attorney’s Office when court adjourned.
Concentration Camp Survivor
When authorities took EM into protective custody June 22, 2025, after his adoptive mother, Angela Mittlestadt, dropped him off at a youth group home in Douglas, he weighed about 50 pounds.
Dr. Andy Sirotnak, a child abuse pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado, testified on the first day of the four-day trial that he diagnosed EM with cachexia, a complex metabolic syndrome marked by progressive, involuntary loss of body mass, including skeletal muscle and fat.
He said EM looked like a concentration camp survivor when he arrived.
The teen gained 15 pounds in the hospital and has continued to gain weight in foster care.
Flight Risk
Hatfield asked the judge to jail Mittlestadt, saying that with a potential half-century prison term, “he’s even more of a significant flight risk than he was.”
Defense attorney Crystal Stewart argued that her client was not a flight risk and noted that his wife, Angela, remains free on bond pending her own sentencing.
Stewart said Darrick Mittlestadt needed time to put his affairs in order.
Mittlestadt testified in his own defense.
Angela Mittlestadt
He and Angela adopted EM in 2019, when the boy was 7. They adopted his half-brother, identified in court as NM, a year later, when that child was an infant.
NM, now 6, was taken into protective custody June 23, 2025, and removed from the couple’s Cheyenne home.
Angela Mittlestadt, 49, cooperated with authorities and pleaded guilty Monday to one count of aggravated child abuse for starving EM.
A second count of conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse — a charge on which her husband was convicted — was dropped.
Mittlestadt's Mother
Cowboy State Daily asked Mittlestadt’s mother whether she wanted to comment on the verdict.
As she held a courthouse door open for her husband, who uses a wheelchair, she dropped her head and walked away.
She attended the trial each day.
Before Froelicher reconvened court for the verdict, she entered the courtroom, hugged her son and sat down.
When EM arrived, she asked his foster mother if she could speak with the boy.
The foster mother declined, and Mittlestadt’s mother left.
Her husband, who testified Wednesday as a defense witness, did not attend other portions of the trial.
Deliberations
The jury of nine men and three women received the case at 4 p.m. Thursday and deliberated for less than an hour before leaving for the day.
They returned at 9 a.m. Friday. Froelicher’s office announced a verdict at 9:25 a.m. Court reconvened at 10 a.m. to hear it.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
