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Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

 in two court cases has waived her right to jury trials, instead choosing to have a judge decide her fate.

She’ll also have to do that facing the full force of evidence investigators found on her cellphone and two laptops after a judge denied her attempt to throw it out on technicalities in the law.

April Marie Morganroth, known in Wyoming as a news reporter by the name of Marie Hamilton, filed her motions to waive her jury trial this week.

Her attempt to quash the electronic evidence that allegedly ties her to forging exhibits presented to the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council and lying to the board in an environmental case dealing with wind farms in her first case was denied Wednesday.

The evidence also relates to allegedly forged documents related to the purchase of property she claimed was bought with money from a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan, according to court documents.

[{"type":"text","text":"In each case, she faces 10 criminal charges."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Warrants"}]

Hamilton argued that all three search warrants — one each for her cellphone and laptops — were invalid because they were approved by a judge in another jurisdiction and for “technical irregularities.”

“Ms. Morganroth asserts that all three warrants are ‘invalid’ because they were signed by Judge Clark C. Allen, a Circuit Court Judge for the Eighth Judicial District and captioned in the Circuit Court of Converse County, as opposed to Platte County,” wrote Platte County District Court Judge Edward Buchanan in his Wednesday denial.

He also dismissed her claim that investigators exceeded the scope of the warrants and accessed more information from her devices than they were legally allowed to.

They did this by copying “bit-for-bit” her hard drives to then doing deep-dive searches of them, according to her motion to quash.

“Nowhere on any warrant does it state that an entire hard drive can be seized and copied,” it says.

Buchanan wrote that “courts have routinely upheld the seizure or copying of hard drives and other storage devices in order to effectuate a proper search for the categories of documents or files listed in a warrant.”

He continued to cite legal precedent that “a computer search may be as extensive as reasonably required to locate the items described in the warrant.

“There is no evidence before this Court to suggest that law enforcement improperly seized property or searched items beyond the scope of the warrant,” Buchanan concluded. “There are no grounds to exclude the evidence obtained during the searches.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The First Case"}]

 in early March on suspicion of submitting forged documents and lying about her credentials during state permitting hearings in which she opposed a controversial wind farm project, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in that case.

Hamilton was the publisher of the short-lived Wyoming Sentinel, a startup publication that has been inactive since late last year that covered Platte, Goshen and Laramie counties. She also has worked as a freelance writer for Wyoming outlets. 

The case against her alleges Hamilton submitted forged documents meant to sway public officials, including letters purporting to be from a doctor and teacher.

Investigators also said Hamilton lied about her credentials and that she was a property owner near the project, the affidavit says.

The doctor and teacher later denied writing the documents Hamilton claimed were from them, the affidavit says.

Hamilton also claimed to own a property on JJ Road in Chugwater, making her a concerned landowner potentially impacted by the wind project, the affidavit says. However, the land actually belongs to somebody else.

The charges for her first case tally as three counts of possession of forged writings, three of forgery, and four counts of perjury.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Second Case"}]

About a month after hit with her first 10 forgery- and perjury-related charges, Hamilton was in court again, 

Those charges relate to an attempted home purchase, according to court documents, and include five counts each of possession of forged writings and forgery.

When Converse County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Benjamin Peech investigated Hamilton’s claim that she bought property with a federal loan, he uncovered more irregularities, he wrote in an affidavit.

The property is registered under Platte County’s mapping system to another couple with a different surname, Peech wrote. 

His investigation found that the other couple were willing to sell the property, and Hamilton told them that she and her husband wanted to buy and it and were prequalified for a USDA loan through Neighbor’s Bank.

Because the property didn’t meet loan standards, Hamilton told the couple she had been approved for a USDA grant to work on issues and bring the property up to standards, the affidavit states.

Hamilton and her husband made a deal with the homeowners in July 2025 to lease the property and use “sweat equity” to bring it up to the standards required for the loan, the affidavit states.

Documents provided to the couple and their Realtor included initial letters with USDA letterhead showing pre-approval from the “USDA Rural Development and Neighbor’s Bank” for a $365,000 loan dated June 10, 2025.

A letter provided by Hamilton to the property owners also showed USDA grant approvals for $35,000 dated Nov. 6, 2025, the affidavit says.

When Hamilton started to become late on rent payments earlier this year and had not provided work logs to the couple, they “began to be concerned and press Hamilton about her progress with improvements on the property,” the affidavit states.

Hamilton provided another letter dated Jan. 28, 2026, stating it represented USDA “Rural Development — Rural Communities Home Buyer Program Notice of Nearing Completion and Continued Work,” the affidavit states.

Page one of the letter states that the work was nearly “80%” complete, Peech wrote.

Other paperwork allegedly submitted to the property owners by Hamilton included invoices from “Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation LLC” showing she had paid $3,075 for repairs on the property’s home and “Pete’s Builders Roofing and Restoration” showing an invoice of $7,890 that was “paid in full.”

However, when contacted by Peech, the USDA and two contractors all said that they never sent any of those letters.

Hamilton is next set to see a courtroom on Oct. 8 for a conference ahead of a trial scheduled for Nov. 2-5.

She posted a $5,000 cash bond in her first case and remains free on a $20,000 signature-only bond in the second.

If convicted and given the maximum penalties and concurrent sentences, she could get up to 140 years in prison, 65 years in the first case and 75 for the second.

Marie Hamilton and courthouse 4 15 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Judge Denies Reporter's Request To Throw Out Evidence On Laptop & Cellphones | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Platte County judge has denied a former reporter's request to throw out all evidence on her laptop and two cell phones. The woman is facing 20 forgery and perjury-related charges in two court case. She also waived her right to jury trials.

Judge Denies Reporter's Request To Throw Out Evidence On Laptop & Cellphones

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

A Mexican national sentenced Tuesday to 180 days in jail for charging toward a Teton County Sheriff’s deputy with his box truck is trying to remain in the United States, his defense attorney said in court.

Ramon Gabriel Chavez Cruz, 46, pleaded no contest Tuesday in Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens’ court, to one count of aggravated assault.

He 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.

The case affidavit by then-Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper Mike Merritt 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’d been in the back seat of a family vehicle while his son Eamonn drove, and Roy’s wife, Kate, sat in the front passenger seat. “By the grace of God and my son’s quick reactions the collision was barely avoided.”

The prosecutor, Teton County Deputy Attorney Claire Fuller, emphasized at Chavez Cruz’s sentencing hearing that only one of Chavez Cruz’s many, alleged head-on charges happened in Teton County.

The rest happened in Lincoln County, where County Attorney Spencer Allred is waiting to prosecute Chavez Cruz “to the full extent of the law,” Allred told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

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. That’s a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Fuller agreed to drop three  misdemeanors, including DUI.

And Owens, who accepted the agreement, sentenced Chavez Cruz to a split sentence: 180 days in jail followed by three years’ probation – with the threat of a two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half-year prison sentence remaining if he fails probation.

The 222 days Chavez Cruz has already spent in jail awaiting Tuesday’s hearing eclipsed his sentence and he’s to be released from Teton County. The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office expects to take him into custody soon, a jail deputy confirmed to Cowboy State Daily Thursday.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s Allred’s understanding as well."}]

Chavez Cruz faces potentially much harsher consequences in Lincoln County, where Allred has filed eight counts of aggravated assault against him – one for each person he allegedly charged with his truck. Allred also filed a ninth count, misdemeanor reckless driving, which is punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.  

It’s unclear what role, if any, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plays in this case. The agency declined to discuss Chavez Cruz’s immigration status, writing in a Friday email, “ICE cannot provide any information on this individual.”

Chavez Cruz has a special kind of immigration visa indicating he’s been a crime victim, Trefonas told the court.

“He’s a victim of some incredibly severe, traumatic physical crimes. And so were his wife and children,” said Trefonas. “That all led up to these events: working 24/7; having terror, trauma in his life – and some drug use.”

Trefonas said Chavez Cruz has accepted responsibility in the Teton County case. He’s from Oaxaca, Mexico, and “he’s in a legal process to remain in the United States lawfully, irrespective of these charges,” said Trefonas.

Chavez Cruz told Owens, “For every impacted person in my case, I feel really, really sorry for what happened. I’m willing to take every step to fix the situation – here and Lincoln County.”

While nearly all the drivers Chavez Cruz is accused of chasing with his box truck evaded uninjured, Eric Leonard did not.

Merritt responded to the canyon area at about 10:42 p.m. the night of June 4, 2024, while the two counties’ dispatchers received at least a dozen 911 calls about a violent driver, the affidavit says.

Vehicle descriptions ranged from RV to “semi-type truck” and the culprit vehicle was identified as a box truck registered to Chavez Cruz.

He’d incorporated a transport business called “Your Freight Guys” in Aurora, Colorado, two months before his arrest.

The 911 calls kept coming. Merritt “was advised the large truck had continued northbound toward Jackson after running a car off the road,” so the trooper asked Teton County Sheriff’s deputies to track the truck down while he pulled off to investigate a white BMW that sat in the ditch with its front end smashed and its air bags deployed.

Two men, Brian and Nolan Potts, were on scene. Brian was “visibly shaken up,” wrote Merritt.

Merritt found Brian’s friend Leonard in the BMW’s driver’s seat, and emergency personnel “being careful” about pulling him out because they suspected a back injury.

Leonard said the truck crossed from its northbound lane into his southbound lane to hit them.

“I swerved hard because he was coming directly at me, head-on,” Leonard recalled in a Friday interview with Cowboy State Daily. “When we went into the ditch we went airborne. I don’t know how long we were in the air, but I know we crashed down very hard, and I felt my back immediately.”

He broke his L2 vertebra, Leonard said. As of this week, he still struggles to load the dishwasher, he added.

The three friends had been hiking in Yellowstone that day and were headed back to a cabin Leonard rented in Alpine, using the BMW – which was also rented.

“Had I been on the other side of the road, I would have driven down in the Snake River,” Leonard said. “And then I’d be – probably not talking to you.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Witnesses, More Witnesses"}]

Merritt interviewed a man and woman “hanging around” and trying to help. They were Michael and Kym Arian.

When they first spotted the box truck they saw another vehicle speeding backwards away from it as it chased to ram it “front to front,” wrote Merritt from the Arians’ statements. 

That backward driver was later identified as Josh Petrey, and his passenger as Kara Petrey, the affidavit says.

The box truck halted in the middle of the road. The driver got out of the vehicle and ran toward the vehicle it had blocked onto the road, screaming, “Why are you following me!” says the document.

The driver got back into the truck and “took off,” then “made it a point to drive at the Arians in an aggressive manner, trying to ram their vehicle off the road,” Merritt recounted from the alleged victims’ statements.

Michael Arian was able to dodge. Then he followed the box truck while calling law enforcement. And that was when he and Kym saw the crashed BMW and stopped to help, reportedly.

[{"type":"text","text":"Why Are You Following Me?"}]

Another set of witnesses, Brian, Jodi and Colten Cook, wrote a later email to investigators saying they were halfway through the canyon that night “when a big cargo truck pulled sideways on the road, blocking both lanes.”

They thought the driver was attempting a turn in a “terrible place to try and turn around, because he was blocking both lanes of traffic,” the account says.

Then the man got out of the truck and ran toward them shouting “why are you following me?” and the driver of the Cooks’ car threw it into reverse to escape him, says the affidavit. The Cooks said the driver got back in his truck and tried to “run over” a car headed south toward Alpine.

The Cooks kept driving, flashing their headlights at other cars. They watched other cars swerve into the barrow pit, as the cargo truck kept “chasing us,” the account says, adding,  “This happened at least 12-15 times.”

“At one point he was chasing us and trying to run us over from behind,” the account says. “As soon as we were able to get cell coverage, we called 911.”

Josh Petrey’s email to investigators says he and Kara saw the truck parked across both lanes of the canyon and waited for it to move, but it was empty. Then the owner got into the truck, and Josh backed up to give him room.

“He then (started) trying to ram us,” the account says. “I reversed going between 20 and 30 mph. I zigzagged from one side to the other so he could not get any momentum.”

Josh Petrey assumed the driver got upset with this tactic. The driver slammed on his brakes in the middle of the road and got out of the truck, reportedly.

Josh Petrey rolled down his window to find out if the man was all right, he recalled.

“Have you had enough?!” yelled the driver, while charging the Petreys’ car on foot, says the account.

Josh Petrey sped past him and around his truck, where two other vehicles sat waiting. Josh rolled down his window and told the driver of a white truck to leave the area.

“We sped off and warned two different vehicles not to head that way, because the guy was unhinged,” wrote Josh Petrey.

He and his wife made it to Alpine, within cellphone signal range, and called 911.

Merritt’s affidavit includes an account from Marcus Loefverstrom, who recalled driving down the road with his wife and 11-month old son.

The family met multiple vehicles with their lights flashing “aggressively to warn me about something.”

The family saw a truck change lanes and head toward them; Loefverstrom tried to veer to the right into a rocky ditch, but realized that plan was no good, he wrote.

“I made a last-ditch decision to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid him on the left,” Loefverstrom wrote. Fortunately, the lane was clear. But they narrowly missed a head-on collision with the truck, reportedly.

“My wife remembers waking up to headlights right in front of our car. A near miss,” wrote Loefverstrom.

Loefverstrom watched other cars veer off the road. The driver of a Jeep asked if the family were OK and when Loefverstrom said they were, that driver “rushed off,” he recalled.

Loefverstrom called another family member, who was still in town, to tell her not to leave town yet.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Walters family gave a similar report, wrote Merritt."}]

The box truck crossed lanes “and attempted to head-on us,” wrote Roy Walters in his statement. Roy’s son Eamonn veered onto the shoulder, but the truck “tracked us and continued to try to collide with us,” the account says.

[{"type":"text","text":"Roy’s wife Kate added that they were trying to get home to Etna."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"They saw Leonard in the crashed BMW and pulled off to help him."}]

“He was shaking and moaning,” Kate recalled. They gave him a blanket and water.

[{"type":"text","text":"Against The Guard Rail"}]

All of that happened in Lincoln County, allegedly. The case to determine whether Chavez Cruz is guilty of all those claims is ongoing. It was charged two years ago: June 26, 2024, but is now becoming active since Teton County has concluded its case against Chavez Cruz, said Allred.

Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Caleb Johnson was still in Teton County as he responded to 911 calls about a “crazy driver,” Fuller said in court.

There the box truck crossed both lanes and charged him so that he had to “suck up to the guard rail to avoid being hit,” Merritt’s affidavit says.

Deputies converged, and stopped the box truck in Teton County. The truck driver informed them he thought he “was one of them,” the trooper wrote.

Investigators noted a Delta 8 edibles package in the truck cab, open and empty, added Merritt.

“Teton County got lucky in this case,” said Fuller at the sentencing hearing, adding, “The people in Teton County got lucky, I should say. The defendant’s actions began in Lincoln County.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Two Years Later"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Leonard was frustrated Tuesday. "}]

He had a hot-mic moment in the virtual court hearing in which he called Chavez Cruz a “career criminal.”

He voiced disappointment afterward to Cowboy State Daily, of the sentence Chavez Cruz received.

“I was mortified,” said Leonard. “And kind of sickened, to be honest with you.”

But the case isn’t over, as Lincoln County prepares for its nine-count prosecution.

While Teton County authorities charged Chavez Cruz one day after his arrest and he promptly bonded out, Allred didn’t charge the man for another 21 days that June.

At the time it seemed to Leonard that Chavez Cruz had vanished “into the wind.” He filed a bar complaint against Allred.

That didn’t rise to the level of ethical misconduct, Allred, told Cowboy State Daily. 

But Allred didn’t know about the case while Teton County authorities were both charging and releasing Chavez Cruz, the prosecutor countered in his own Thursday interview.

“I was not even informed about this case until two weeks later. I didn’t have anything from law enforcement – they hadn’t given me anything,” said Allred, adding that without the investigation report, he couldn’t file the case.

[{"type":"text","text":"Once he received the affidavit, he said, “I immediately filed.”"}]

Allred also said the bar complaint went nowhere, since the claims against him didn’t rise to the level of ethical violations. The prosecutor will need to work with Leonard in the case ahead, Allred acknowledged.

“I don’t have anything against Mr. Leonard. He will certainly be a key witness in our case against Mr. Cruz,” he said.

Chavez Cruz posted a $15,000 bond and was released from the Teton County Detention Center soon after his June 4, 2024, arrest.

Then he committed crimes in Colorado, according to a booking document Cowboy State Daily has obtained, and statements made in court Tuesday.

Chavez Cruz told Owens he’s on probation; his attorney Elisabeth Trefonas clarified that’s due to crimes he committed in Colorado after the box truck incident.

Cowboy State Daily has placed a records request for that case disposition and charges with Colorado’s judicial branch.

When Chavez Cruz didn’t appear for a Jan. 28, 2025, hearing, Owens issued an all-states bench warrant for his arrest. Teton County collected him into custody and he appeared for court in December. By the time of his sentencing he’d spent a collective 222 days in jail. 

His case also involved evaluations to determine whether he was mentally fit to face court proceedings.

[{"type":"text","text":"For several weeks, he wasn’t, the court file indicates."}]

But Owens reversed course late this winter after another evaluation indicated Chavez Cruz had become competent. She declared him fit for court.

Trefonas said Chavez Cruz had also been found incompetent at some point in his Colorado case. 

Meanwhile, Leonard has also filed a civil lawsuit complaint against Chavez Cruz in the federal U.S. District Court for Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"That case is paused to allow the prosecutions to unfold."}]

It’s unclear if ICE has a detainer or other ongoing proceedings involving Chavez Cruz.

Jackson sheriff and sign 7 10 26

<title>Mexican Trucker Accused Of Furious Canyon Rampage Trying To Stay In U.S. | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Mexican national who faces eight felonies is attempting to stay in the country after he allegedly chased down and tried to ram travelers off the road in Snake River Canyon. He "deliberately crossed the centerline and targeted our vehicle," one victim said.

Mexican Trucker Accused Of Furious Canyon Rampage Trying To Stay In U.S.

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A Lovell man says he’s reasonably sure a bear he briefly spotted off Dayton Gulch Road in the Bighorn Mountains last week was a grizzly.

Casey Jones told Cowboy State Daily he saw the bear at about 3:30 or 4 p.m. July 2, and caught a video of it.

“The hump between the shoulders, that’s what got me to thinking it’s a grizzly,” he said during a telephone interview Thursday when he had brief service from the Bighorns.

His father, Levi Jones of Lovell, posted the video on social media, igniting a debate over whether the bear is in fact a grizzly or a member of the Bighorns’ significant population of black bears.

Retired Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist Mark Bruscino viewed the video and told Cowboy State Daily that “I can’t tell for sure” whether the bear is a grizzly from the brief, distant clip.

Casey Jones said the bear is the first he’s ever seen in the Bighorns that he suspects is a grizzly, although he’s seen what he thought were grizzly tracks.

A Lovell man says he thinks a bear he spotted off Dayton Gulch Road in the Bighorn Mountains last week was a grizzly. Casey Jones took a quick video of the bear and said,"The hump between the shoulders, that’s what got me to thinking it’s a grizzly."