A Uinta County District Court judge on Friday sent a former state brand inspector involved in the felony torture of a moose to jail for 30 days because he wanted “to send a message," in the process ignoring a plea agreement.
Judge James Kaste told Justin Martin he was changing the sentence because Martin was the adult during the incident and co-defendants Kylan Platt, then 17, and Range Martin, his son, then 18, looked to him for guidance and direction.
“(You’re) the one who told them to ‘spur that son-of-a-bitch’ with his camera out," the judge said. "I can’t fathom why anyone would do that unless they were just as proud as punch of what they were up to.
"I think that part of the things we’re doing in sentencing is general deterrence, which is, I get to send a message to the people of this community and this world about what is and is not acceptable.”
Kaste also noted that the 30 days in jail he sentenced Martin to are 30 days more than Cody Roberts of Daniel got for his now-infamous wolf abuse case.
Roberts was sentenced in April to 18 months supervised probation, and no jail time, for torturing a wolf in February 2024.
Rewind Five Years
Charges against the Uninta County began with a Wyoming Game and Fish Department investigation that involved the seizure of Justin Martin’s phone on a separate issue.
Game and Fish found video and screenshots of the abuse of a cow moose by Justin Martin and Platt on May 4, 2021, and Justin and Range Martin on May 24, 2021.
Game and Fish allege the abuse happened on Martin’s M Arrow Ranch.
Special Prosecutor F. Gaston Gosar had told the court he modeled the plea offer to Martin and his attorney, Joseph Hampton, after the Cody Roberts case.
Kaste changed Martin’s plea deal to include 30 days in jail starting immediately, in addition to a suspended prison sentence. He could have received up to two years for accessory before the fact to felony cruelty to animals.
The judge also lengthened the Uinta County rancher’s supervised probation term to 36 months instead of the 24 months initially proposed by Gosar and accepted by Martin.
Kaste noted that Martin was a former brand inspector and lost his job because of his actions on May 4 and May 21, 2021 — dates that Platt rode and spurred a sickly cow moose and Range Martin roped and pulled the moose with his horse.
Both Platt and Range Martin were sentenced on one felony count of cruelty to animals under a special Wyoming felony deferral law for those without a previous felony conviction.
Their sentence means that if they complete their supervised probation successfully, the felony charge will be erased.
Justin Martin told the court he took full responsibility for his actions and apologized to the community.
“I’m the adult. I’m the one in the wrong. I apologize for the waste of people’s time, for the waste of people’s money, for the waste of having any kind of problem,” he said. “That’s on me. I’ve tried to make the best restitution I could come up with in my own mind, to try to make this better.
"I’ve still got a lot more to do to do that.”
Community Service Ordered
All three defendants also were ordered to each perform 576 hours of community service.
A surprised Hampton asked the court for a delay in Justin Martin’s jail sentence because he was in the process of bringing cattle in from the range and “it would be a detriment to him financially.”
Kaste responded that Martin should have come to court with the understanding he was facing potentially up to two years in prison.
“That request is denied,” Kaste said.
Gosar noted that none of the defendants had criminal records and that he believed it was appropriate to sentence Platt and Range Martin using the deferral law.
Platt’s attorney, J. Craig Abraham, told the court he first met Platt of Malad, Idaho, while he served a mission for his church in Gillette. He noted his client was only 17 when he rode and spurred the moose and that he has matured.
“I think its hard to find a 17-year-old in today’s society that didn’t do some really stupid things that in hindsight … dawns on you that that was a really stupid thing to do,” Abraham said, admitting his client got on and spurred the animal. “I would submit that it was the actions of a 17-year-old hormonal driven … the statute calls him a child.”
Platt was asked by Kaste if he had anything to say.
“I think I’m good,” he said. “Thank you. Appreciate it.”
Range Martin’s attorney, Jonathan Gerard, said his client at his plea hearing told the court that he was roping the moose to get it out of the way. They were moving cows through and the “moose simply wasn’t moving.”
“He was very young at the time and that was his conduct, and it lasted 20 or 30 seconds,” Gerard said.
He noted that Range Martin has finished high school, performed a church mission, is ranching with his own cattle, and is an “upstanding young man.” He asked the judge to follow the plea deal.
Range Martin told the court that he was “sorry for what I did.”
“I don’t like being in trouble and I will never do it again,” he said.
Donated To Game And Fish
The court noted Justin Martin donated $7,500 to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Game and Fish warden Heather Sterling told the court that as a brand inspector Martin was well aware of the procedure to deal with wildlife that might be impeding any cattle operations on his ranch.
She said she reviewed the videos taken from Justin Martin many times and characterized his actions as “knowing and deliberate acts toward a valued wildlife species.”
Despite comments at plea hearings, Sterling said none of the video taken while Martin encouraged Platte and his son in their actions involving the moose showed any cattle or a fence line.
“In these two documented instances, he is encouraging young adults to partake in the inhumane treatment of wildlife,” she said. “I would like to say that later in our investigation we did discover the remains of a deceased cow moose at the exact location we last see the moose in the video taken by Justin Martin on May 24, 2021.”
Kaste told the three defendants he hoped he would never see them in court again and asked them to write him a letter about their community service experiences.
He allowed them to work out with their probation officer a church or cause or organization that could benefit from their time.
“I truly believe that the three of you, 99% of your life are fine, upstanding gentleman,” Kaste said. “But you screwed up, and you know that, and you are making good on it, and I appreciate that. And will look forward to not ever seeing the three of you in this courtroom again.”
The Background
The videos and associated screenshots uncovered on Martin’s phone, and testified to by Sterling at a preliminary hearing on Feb. 20 in Evanston Circuit Court, showed Platt at the M Arrow Ranch lassoing, spurring and riding a cow moose judged by Sterling to be in poor condition.
“He’s smiling, and he is aggressively spurring the moose as if it’s a horse being broken to ride,” she said. “He doesn’t seem to have an issue in participating in this activity at all.”
Sterling said audio taken from the video had Justin Martin’s voice encouraging Platt as he rode the moose.
She said that in addition to Platt having a rope around the moose’s neck, a rope also was around one of its hind legs.
“In the video, you can hear Justin Martin encouraging this behavior and he says, ‘All right now, spur that son of a bitch, give him the dicks spur on him',” Sterling quoted for the court. “'Spur him some more, go to the fronts, that’s a kid'.”
Sterling testified Justin Martin was laughing as he encouraged Platt.
The investigation also found Justin Martin sent the video to more than 20 phone numbers, she said.
Other videos linked to the May 4 incident show Platt before riding the moose standing in the bed of a Honda off-road vehicle with a lariat around the moose’s neck and holding it as the animal struggled.
A video from May 24 showed Range Martin with a cow moose standing in chest-high sagebrush with a lariat around its neck and pulling it while on a horse.
Sterling said the moose is shown falling and struggling to get back on its feet. She said Justin Martin could be heard saying, “I don’t think Ol' Roany likes that son-of-a-gun too much.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
