State Briefs

Man who threatened trailer park manager with a gun pleads no contest

CHEYENNE (WNE) – A man accused of threatening a trailer park manager with a gun was arraigned Thursday in Laramie County District Court.

Rudy Michael Delarosa pleaded no contest to felony aggravated assault and battery, threatening with a weapon, as part of a plea agreement. A misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing would be dismissed at sentencing, if a judge follows the agreement.

The state and the defendant agreed to a sentence of three years of supervised probation, with a suspended sentence of three to five years of incarceration.

Laramie County District Judge Peter Froelicher scheduled Delarosa’s sentencing for Aug. 26.

At 9:28 a.m. March 9, the manager of Miller Mobile Home Park reported to the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office that Delarosa pulled a gun on him and said he’d shoot him, according to court documents. The manager said he’d had past confrontations with Delarosa, who’d been previously barred from the property for his “erratic behavior.”

Several witnesses told a sheriff’s deputy they heard Delarosa threaten the park manager and saw him wave a gun around, according to court documents.

Because of the trailer park’s proximity to Afflerbach Elementary School, the school was monitored by sheriff’s deputies as a precaution until 11:10 that morning.

Updated mental exam ordered for man accused of trying to run into sheriff’s deputy

GILLETTE (WNE) – The Gillette man accused of trying to run into a sheriff’s deputy last spring has withdrawn his plea to three charges against him and again pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness.

That means that the case awaits an updated mental exam — one that Nathan Schuerman, 41, hopes will take into consideration medical reports missing in the first exam and whether a change in his medication weeks before the incident could have affected his behavior and contributed to his actions.

Schuerman was scheduled to be sentenced May 11 after he had pleaded no contest to aggravated assault and battery, interference with a peace officer and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent.

But last month, Schuerman’s attorney, Eric Palen, learned from Schuerman that his switch from one anti-depressant medication to another wasn’t addressed during his mental health exam at the Wyoming State Hospital.

In a court filing, Palen said, “being under the influence of these two medications at the same time may explain Mr. Schuerman’s behavior at the time of the incident.”

The case against Schuerman stems from an April 17, 2020, incident in which Campbell County deputies tried to arrest Schuerman on Coal Train Road.  Schuerman said he would not be taken alive and would ram cops with his vehicle, according to an affidavit.

Deputy Eric Coxbill was parked in his vehicle down the road, on the shoulder. When Schuerman was about 50 yards away and going about 50 mph, he veered off the road and into the grass, aiming directly at Coxbill, according to the affidavit.

“I put my vehicle in gear and aggressively accelerated allowing me to drive onto the road just out of the path of Schuerman’s vehicle, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision,” Coxbill said.

Molestation conviction brings long prison term

RIVERTON (WNE) —   For molesting a 15-year-old girl, Travis Neil Glaze, 36, will spend roughly three decades in prison. 

Fremont County District Court Judge Jason Conder sentenced the Riverton man Thursday morning to 27-30 years in prison, during which Glaze is set to receive substance abuse treatment. 

“I had intercourse with a girl that was 15,” Glaze had confessed when pleading guilty on Feb. 18 to the charge of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor. 

Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun argued that Glaze should “serve every second of the 30 years.”

“He knew her age…And many more intensely personal things about her that made this crime so much worse,” he said. 

Public defender Valerie Schoneberger, who defended Glaze, argued conversely for a 10-20 year sentence. She said Glaze’s past struggles with youthful drug addiction and his turbulent but non-sexual prior criminal record should afford him the lesser sentence. 

But Conder said Glaze’s decision to use meth doesn’t mitigate his guilt.

“When everyone discusses substance abuse as a victimless crime…That’s the rallying cry, is it’s a ‘victimless crime.’ Well, we can see here, it’s not,” said the judge. 

Glaze has 30 days from the filing of his judgment and sentence ruling to file an appeal with the Wyoming Supreme Court. Glaze has been convicted prior of two felonies — burglary at 17 and aggravated assault when he was 22 — and what Conder called “dozens of misdemeanors.”