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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Legislature

Next week Idaho will adopt the firing squad as its primary execution method due to availability and failure problems with lethal injection. 

A lawmaker tried to give Wyoming a firing squad option while the state still had a convicted rapist and murderer on death row in 2014, but the bill didn’t clear the Legislature. 

Wyoming law calls for executions by lethal injection. If lethal injection is found unconstitutional, the state can use a gas chamber.

Dale Wayne Eaton, the “Li’l Miss” killer, was convicted in 2004 for kidnapping, raping and murdering Lisa Marie Kimmell 16 years earlier in Wyoming. The jury called for the death penalty.

But in 2014, while Eaton’s appeal was ongoing, many states were running short of the chemicals to perform lethal injections.  

“So we may have had a problem coming up with the drugs needed for the execution,” 

Burns, a Republican of Sheridan, told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

It would be expensive to build a gas chamber, Burns reasoned, adding, “I always thought gas chamber the most gruesome form of execution anyway.”

Idaho is spending $1.2 million to retrofit an execution chamber for its new firing squad method, the 

[{"type":"text","text":"It doesn’t have to be that expensive, Burns countered."}]

“I don’t know that you’d necessarily need to build a room,” he said. “Even if you did, it could just be cinderblocks.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The Eaton case fizzled in the years that followed."}]

A federal district court judge overturned his death sentence in 2014 because defense lawyers hadn’t pursued a mental-health defense despite Eaton’s mental-health problems.

Prosecutors said they intended to seek the death penalty again on the re-trial, and the trial court ordered a mental evaluation. Then in his mid-70s, Eaton had suffered strokes, dementia and depression, and the trial court found him incompetent to stand trial.

Prosecutors withdrew the death penalty case in 2021 and he was re-sentenced to life in prison the next year.

[{"type":"text","text":"Now 81, Eaton remains in Wyoming's prison system.  "}]

Burns’ 2014 bill made national headlines and surfaced on late-night commentator Stephen Colbert’s show.

“This was back when (Colbert) played the faux conservative,” recalled Burns, a Republican who had represented Sheridan. “It had a picture of me with the graphic ‘thrift justice.’”

The Senate rejected the bill 17-13 on its introductory vote. In even-numbered years, non-budget bills require a two-thirds vote to clear introduction and enter the chamber.

Burns’ legislation resurfaced as a Joint Judiciary Committee bill in 2015, when it had a longer trajectory.

It cleared the Senate and House of Representatives both. The House margin was narrow: 32-28.

In Burns’ view, “the House screwed it up six ways to Sunday and it got to conference committee and it died.”  

Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, who remains in the House today, secured an amendment requiring Wyoming to administer a sleep drug to a convict before having him shot.

Burns said the “knockout drug” was part of the drug shortfall for lethal injections in the first place, however.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nicholas could not be reached for comment by publication."}]

Burns, Nicholas and other lawmakers later attempted a compromise, saying the state would offer, rather than require, sedation. But the bill failed two conference, or negotiation committees and it died.

[{"type":"text","text":"Look, Speaking Practically"}]

Wyoming Department of Corrections Dan Shannon declined Thursday to speak to the moral and humaneness questions around the death penalty and different methods.

“I consider it’s my responsibility to follow the law and perform the duty as required, and I’d certainly do so,” he said. He added that as for Idaho, “whatever Idaho decides is best for them.”

But if his agency received a death warrant, it’s important to have multiple methods available, Shannon said.

“A primary, or only method, I think, can really get you tied up in court,” he noted.

More than 20 pharmaceutical companies, including 

, banned the use of their medicines in lethal injections in 2016. States scrambled for substitutes. As they did, the number of botched executions spiked, 

[{"type":"text","text":"Some states “compound” or craft the concoction themselves."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“I believe that’s not the approach,” Shannon said."}]

 For one thing, he said, compounding lethal drugs provokes even more litigation than already surrounds the death penalty.

“In the event that we received a death warrant, I’d approach the legislators and I’d ask, one, that we leave the lethal injection and second, (they’d adopt) nitrogen hypoxia,” or gas, Shannon said.

When Burns’ bill started circulating in 2014, the DOC recommended $30,000 to adjust for the firing squad adjustments. That would be much higher now, noted Shannon, referencing Idaho’s $1.2 million price tag and inflation.

[{"type":"text","text":"No One On Death Row"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"This issue is distant from Shannon in reality, however."}]

 Mark Hopkinson’s lethal injection in 1992 – 13 years after he was convicted.

Hopkinson had ordered the torturous murder of 23-year-old Jeffrey Green, who was set to testify against him for the 1977 bombing of an attorney’s home in which three people died.

The last-minute question of whether then-Gov. Mike Sullivan should commute Hopkinson’s death sentence in 1992 harrowed the governor, he told Cowboy State Daily in an interview last May.  

“You’re not faced with that kind of decision very often,” Sullivan said.

 He had support from others. His priest stayed with him in his office in Cheyenne the day of Hopkinson’s execution.

The depths of contemplation Sullivan reached changed him, though he now can’t pinpoint exactly how. After people surmount decisions that serious, they become more introspective, more thoughtful, he said.

On the one hand, Sullivan knew the state he led was about to take a life. On the other hand, not even the rigid constraints of federal prison had kept Hopkinson from having Green killed.   

That was Sullivan’s chief consideration when he ultimately chose not to commute the man’s death sentence, he said.

Wyoming’s former DOC director Bob Lampert told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that he disagrees with the death penalty.

[{"type":"text","text":"He has a lot of experience with it, he noted."}]

He served in Texas prisons and ran security at the Ellis One unit in Texas, which housed death row. He also worked in the Huntsville unit, where the executions unfolded, and he was part of the team involved in those executions, he said.

Lampert said he opposes the death penalty now “for a variety of reasons: one of the largest is the impact it has on the (prison) employees as well as the other inmates that get to know the condemned.”

In Idaho, the state is seeking police officers to volunteer as firing squad marksmen.  

After having spoken with multiple condemned inmates just before their executions, Lampert said, none of them considered Texas’ death penalty had factored into their thinking as a deterrent. Their passions, or drug involvements, overwhelmed any such considerations, Lampert recalled.

To pursue a full death penalty case through appeals costs around $1 million, plus the lengthy time they’re incarcerated throughout, he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Ultimately it’s an irreversible penalty,” said Lampert."}]

Lampert led Wyoming's prison system for nearly 17 years before retiring in 2023. He recalled how scarce lethal injection drugs grew during that time – a consideration that remained on his mind since he worked for a death penalty state.

In both Wyoming and Texas, “I had to decide if the position I was in – and being responsible for involvement in death penalty cases – was something that I could personally live with despite my opposition to capital punishment,” Lampert reflected. “And I was able to make that adjustment. Because it was the will of the citizens that I worked for. So I was always prepared to carry through with whatever responsibility I had.”

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<title>Idaho's Reviving The Firing Squad. Wyoming Almost Did For Dale Wayne Eaton | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Idaho is switching from lethal injections to firing squad executions on July 1. Wyoming almost added firing squad executions as an alternate method in 2014 because lethal injection drugs were scarce and 'Lil Miss' killer Dale Wayne Eaton was still on death row.

Idaho's Reviving The Firing Squad. Wyoming Almost Did For Dale Wayne Eaton

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Fishing

Upper Sunshine Reservoir near Meeteetse is popular with local anglers, particularly for ice fishing, but the reservoir is being drained so fishing there won't be an option for two years.

The Greybull Valley Irrigation District is draining the reservoir “to perform critical irrigation infrastructure repairs,” according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Upper Sunshine is expected to be completely drained by Sept. 1, so engineers can inspect infrastructure and determine what repairs are needed.

It will start refilling Oct. 1 but will be drained again in 2027 for the repair work. Repairs are scheduled for completion by April 2028.

“Game and Fish will not stock the small pool that will form during the 2026-2027 period, as it will be drained again in the fall of 2027. Stocking to rebuild the fishery will resume in the fall of 2028, once repairs are completed and water levels stabilize,” according to the agency.

Dalton Epperson of Cody and his friend Tyler Geving of Meeteetse have fished at Upper and Lower Sunshine reservoirs for years.

Upper Sunshine is primarily for ice fishing, they said.

“It’s usually the first thing that’s frozen” in the area, Epperson said.

Upper Sunshine doesn’t have much fish variety, he added.

“It’s all suckers and cutthroats,” he said.

Meat from the suckers makes good lake trout bait, he said.

Because this past winter was so dry, Upper Sunshine Reservoir wasn’t in the best shape anyway, Geving said.

“It was pretty low during ice fishing season,” he said.

Even so, with plentiful fish and easy access, it’s remained popular, Geving said.

“Upper Sunshine is a good starter lake. It’s a good place to take somebody and teach them ice fishing because you can catch 14- and 15-inch cutthroat all day long,” he said.

The reservoirs are the site of an ice fishing derby during the first week of February.

Epperson said Upper and Lower Sunshine are go-too fishing spots for Park County locals because they're about 40 minutes from Cody.

And from Meeteetse, “locals can be there in about 10 minutes and have their boats on the water,” he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long-Term Goals"}]

While the drainages and construction will tank fishing at Upper Sunshine Reservoir in the short term, the repair work should have lasting benefits for the fishery, according to Game and Fish.

“Recent sampling has indicated reduced growth rates in stocked Yellowstone cutthroat trout, likely due to an overabundance of longnose suckers competing for resources, and the drawdown will significantly reduce the sucker population,” Cody regional fisheries biologist Jason Burckhardt said in a statement from the agency.

Refilling the reservoir will release “a surplus of nutrients” from plants and soil, he added.

That will boost plankton production, so trout should grow faster and bigger, Burkhardt said.

While Upper Sunshine Reservoir is down, anglers can turn their attention to Lower Sunshine Reservoir and other waters in the region.

Some of those include Boysen Reservoir south of Thermopolis, Buffalo Bill Reservoir west of Cody, and Meadowlark Lake in the Bighorn Mountains.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Let’s Go Splake Fishing"}]

Epperson and Geving said draining Upper Sunshine Reservoir will put a pinch on their local angling opportunities. But they understand the work has to be done, and there’s no shortage of other places to fish.

“I know they’ve got to upgrade stuff and keep things fixed, to keep the reservoirs running right,” Geving said. “And Lower Sunshine is more fun to fish because it’s got lake trout and splake, and bigger fish.” 

Splake are a sterile hybrid species popular among Wyoming anglers. They’re produced in Game and Fish hatcheries by crossing male brook trout with female lake trout.

Upper sunshine 1 3 25 26

<title>Upper Sunshine Reservoir Near Meeteetse Drained, No More Fishing For Two years | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Upper Sunshine Reservoir near Meeteetse is popular with local anglers, particularly for ice fishing, but the reservoir is being drained, so there won’t be any fishing there for two years. It’s expected to be completely drained by Sept. 1.

Upper Sunshine Reservoir Near Meeteetse Drained, No More Fishing For Two years

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A Texas man is accused of exposing his erect penis and "wiggling his hips" in the parking lot of a busy Mexican restaurant in Jackson on Tuesday evening before driving away intoxicated.

The alleged incident involving Anthony Joseph Durkas happened at 7:42 p.m. outside El Abuelito Restaurant, a popular family eatery about a five-minute walk west of Jackson Town Square.

A caller told dispatch an intoxicated man pulled down his pants, exposed his genitals and was "swinging it around" in the parking lot before climbing into a white Chevrolet Silverado with Texas license plates.

The public indecency allegation, however, stems largely from what police say happened before officers ever arrived, documented in a probable-cause affidavit filed Wednesday by Sgt. Justin Lancaster of the Jackson Police Department. 

A woman who witnessed the encounter showed Lancaster cellphone video she recorded from the parking lot before providing it to investigators for review. 

The video appeared to show Durkas "passionately kissing a woman" before she reached toward his crotch. 

Lancaster notes the video showed Durkas "appeared to undo his pants facing the female." 

Then, he wrote, Durkas "turned to the side which showed his penis was erect and exposed to the general public."

According to the affidavit, Durkas then began "wiggling his hips, which caused his erect penis to move in a circular motion."

Lancaster wrote the incident occurred during the dinner rush with passing motorists and at least one witness nearby.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"DUI Arrest"}]

As officers arrived, Lancaster reported seeing the pickup backing out of a parking space.

When the officer approached the driver's window, he said he immediately smelled a strong odor of alcohol along with the faint smell of marijuana coming from inside the truck.

Lancaster wrote that Durkas had bloodshot, watery eyes, slurred speech, and appeared unsteady on his feet after getting out of the vehicle.

Lancaster also said Durkas was "slow to follow commands and/or was unable" to comply with instructions.

He noted that Durkas did not respond to a request to perform standardized field-sobriety tests.

Durkas was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and taken to jail. His pickup was impounded because, according to Lancaster, it was partially blocking the parking lot.

During an inventory search of the truck, officers found a clear plastic bag labeled "MAC GALACTIC" containing suspected psilocybin mushrooms.

Inside a camper shell, officers also reported finding what appeared to be burned and unburned marijuana in a pipe along with a grinder.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Court Proceedings"}]

Durkas appeared Wednesday in Teton County Circuit Court, where he was arraigned on one count each of public indecency and driving under the influence, along with two misdemeanor counts of possessing controlled substances.

If convicted on all four counts and ordered to serve the maximum penalties consecutively, he could face up to 3½ years in jail and $4,500 in fines.

Teton County Circuit Court Judge Erin E. Weisman set a bond at $3,000 cash or surety and scheduled a jury trial for Oct. 27, though the matter could be resolved through a plea agreement or another disposition.

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<title>Texas Man Accused Of Flashing Penis Outside Busy Jackson Mexican Restaurant | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Texas man is accused of exposing his penis and "swinging it around" in the parking lot of a busy Mexican restaurant in Jackson on Tuesday evening before driving away intoxicated. If convicted on all four counts he could face up to 3½ years in jail.

Texas Man Accused Of Flashing Penis Outside Busy Jackson Mexican Restaurant

Facing extreme drought in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter, officials in Colorado and Oregon have thrown up their hands and told anglers at some reservoirs: Catch all the fish you want, because they’re going to die anyway.

Conditions aren’t nearly so dire at two of Wyoming’s premier fishing reservoirs, Flaming Gorge in Sweetwater County and Boysen in Fremont County, where limits remain in place and the angling should remain good this summer, a state park manager and marina owner told Cowboy State Daily.

In northeastern Oregon, fishing limits were lifted on three reservoirs on the Powder River, a tributary of the Snake River, which originates in Wyoming.

Colorado is allowing unlimited angling on Antero Reservoir on the South Platte River in the central part of the state, and the Nee Noshe Reservoir to the southeast.

Utah has loosened catch limits on Crouse Reservoir, east of Salt Lake City, and Nine Mile Reservoir, south of the city.

In each instance, state agencies surmised reservoirs are getting so low and stagnant the fish are doomed regardless, according to numerous media reports.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Emergency, Yet"}]

Despite drought conditions across the state, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department doesn’t have “immediate plans to enact emergency regulations to liberalize creel limits,” according to fisheries management coordinator Mark Smith.

“However, conditions could change rapidly. If an emergency change to creel limits were to occur that information would be disseminated widely to the public and posted at the water for anglers to find,” Smith said in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

Some of Wyoming’s larger reservoirs have conservation pools, or “dead pools,” to act as buffers for fisheries when water is running low, Smith said.

Even so, “all stored water has limitations,” he added. The water at Flaming Gorge and Boysen is expected to drop enough to render some boat ramps useless.

So, Game and Fish is watching closely for a “tipping point” that might warrant a change in fishing regulations, Smith said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bad New For Small Waters"}]

For smaller fisheries, the news isn’t quite so good.

“Ultimately, our goal is to protect all of our fisheries, but we recognize that some of our small waters have already been lost, or will be lost, to drying,” Smith said.

Sometimes that happens so fast there isn’t time to react, he said.  

“For example, when we were finally able to access roads and assess small ponds in the 33 Mile country north of Casper this May, most of those fisheries had already succumbed to low water elevations and poor water-quality conditions,” Smith said.

“Other sagebrush stock-water reservoirs could face a similar fate,” he added.

Emergency regulations require the governor’s signature.

“Emergency regulations take effect immediately upon the Governor’s approval and would be lifted if conditions improved and fish were likely to survive,” Smith said.

Boysen Reservoir has been roughly 70% full during June, Boysen State Park superintendent John Bass said.

Boysen is one of Wyoming’s top destinations for walleye, and also boasts good trout fishing.

Bass said he doesn’t anticipate the reservoir dropping to the point of mass fish die-offs or calls to lift all fishing limits.

According to Bureau of Reclamation estimates, Boysen will slowly fall, but remain above 50% capacity.

All four Boysen boat ramps are usable, he said. They are Bannon, Tough Creek, Fremont Bay and Cottonwood Bay.

“Although, as the lake starts falling, the Fremont and Cottonwood Ramps will be too shallow to use. But that’s a fairly common occurrence in my 10 years here,” Bass said. "The Brannon and Tough Creek boat ramps will be usable for the remainder of the year, until ice-up.” 

Likewise, there’s no reason to think officials will call for a free-for-all at Flaming Gorge, which straddles the Wyoming-Utah state line, Buckboard Marina owner Tony Valdez said.

“I don’t think we’ll be at the stagnant water level, where we could lose all of the fish,” he said.

Flaming Gorge draws anglers from all over the region for its prized kokanee salmon. It’s also known for lake trout and other species.

The Bureau of Reclamation this spring announced that Flaming Gorge is set for a million-acre-foot drawdown to make up for severe shortages downstream at Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona state line.

An acre foot is the amount of water that would flood an acre of land to the depth of one foot.

Valdez has previously expressed concerns the drawdown could ruin kokanee spawning areas. Kokanee are already under pressure because of competition with lake trout and burbot.

Wyoming Game and Fish and the Utah Division of Wildlife already lifted catch limits on smaller lake trout (under 28 inches) and burbot, in hopes of helping the kokanee.

Valdez said he doesn’t expect fishing limits to be suspended on any other species.

However, boat ramps could be rendered useless as the reservoir drops for the drawdown, he added.

Valdez said his marina could also tank this summer.

“This year, the marina could be gone. In fact, I’ve got to go deal with that right now, and move some stuff around (because of dropping water levels),” he said during a telephone interview with Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Catfish Getting Scarce"}]

Valdez said if there’s any danger of water dropping to fish-killing levels it would hit first upstream, at Fontenelle Reservoir.

“If it did get that low, the first one to go would be Fontenelle, then the Green (River) and then Flaming Gorge. But I don’t see it dropping that low,” he said.

Drought has ruined some of the fishing on the Blacks River, which feeds Flaming Gorge on the west side, Valdez said.

That river once was a hot spot for catfish, he noted.

“People still catch catfish near the confluence, more so in the lake than on the river. The river gets stagnant,” he said.

While Flaming Gorge is holding its own for now, the long-term picture could be stark.

During a Tuesday meeting in Denver, members of the Upper Colorado River Commission said conditions along the river system – which includes the Green River – are dire.

Wyoming state engineer Brandon Gebhart said it could be the 

Antero reservoir 6 26 26

<title>Colorado And Oregon Lift Fishing Restrictions, Drought Will Kill Fish Anyway | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Facing extreme drought in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter, officials in Colorado and Oregon have told anglers at some reservoirs: Catch all the fish you want, because they’re going to die anyway. In Wyoming, emergency measures are on hold.

Colorado And Oregon Lift Fishing Restrictions, Drought Will Kill Fish Anyway

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

A dispute over primitive outhouses on Amish-owned property in Crook County has prompted claims that some families are leaving northeast Wyoming’s oldest Amish community, though county officials say the issue has been resolved and was never intended to drive anyone away.

Sheridan rancher Pepper Fipps said he believes county enforcement efforts over wastewater disposal in the Hulett area have discouraged Amish families from remaining in the community.

“They wind up starting a little bit of a war,” Fipps said of the commissioners. “The community is dwindling.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Crook County Commission vice chairman Bob Latham disputes that."}]

“It’s all settled now. Everything is fixed,” Latham told Cowboy State Daily.

An estate moving sale earlier this month was held for two Amish families — Abe and Elizabeth Yoder and Rudy and Irene Borntreger. Records show Abe Yoder was among the landowners involved in the wastewater dispute.

About 40 Amish families live in the Hulett area, Fipps said. Founded in 2011, the Hulett Amish settlement is one of five in Wyoming.

Cowboy State Daily attempted to contact the families but did not receive responses before publication. Amish communities have traditionally relied on the U.S. mail for communication, and many members do not use cell phones or email.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sanitation Concerns"}]

The issue surfaced in October 2024, when Crook County officials learned some Amish landowners west of Hulett had dug pits to use as toilets without obtaining permits.

Crook County wastewater specialist Caleb Peters informed commissioners that Yoder had installed outhouses that did not comply with county regulations, according to reporting by the Sundance Times.

A Sheridan rancher says an "asinine, stupid" outhouse crackdown is pushing Amish families out of the Hulett area. He said landowners were threatened with fines of up to $30,000 per day if they failed to comply with outhouse regulations.

Patricia "Patty" Ann Maser, 69