No Jail Time for a Public Act of Torture

Cody Roberts avoided prison, but the case delivered a global verdict on the state’s wolf policies, criminal code, and political will.

Cody Roberts has taken a plea agreement in his felony animal cruelty case, which involved him running over an immature wolf with a snowmobile, taping his mouth shut, and parading him into the bar in Daniel, Wyoming. This cruel stunt was widely recognized by the public as torture, but initially Roberts got only a $250 fine from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for illegally possessing a live wolf, a fine which Roberts publicly dismissed as no more than his bar tab. It was a bad look for Wyoming in general, and the community of Daniel, Wyoming in particular.

Years before, Wyoming legislators had proposed a bill to make it illegal to run over a coyote with a snowmobile. The bill was necessary because degenerate locals in western Wyoming were (and are) making a hobby of it, strapping GoPros on their helmets so they can brag about it later on social media. The bill never got out of committee and the practice was effectively endorsed by the legislature as an accepted part of Wyoming custom and culture.

As the Cody Roberts incident turned into a global scandal, the legislature convened a special committee to craft legislation to address the issue. The bill they came up with was laughable, criminalizing animal torture, but not until the second offense, thus giving every resident in Wyoming the opportunity to torture wildlife once and get off scot-free. A conviction in court could only be handed down if intent to cause suffering could be proven. Then, to cap it all off, the lobbyist for the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, Jim Magagna, got into the media and declared that running over wolves with snowmobiles, for ranchers is considered “one of their most effective tools.” It was as if Wyoming was publicly revelling it its own moral excesses.

But then, Sublette County prosecutor Clayton Melinkovich decided to pursue felony animal cruelty charges, and took the case to a grand jury. Cody Roberts must have been surprised; in Wyoming killing wolves isn’t even regulated and doesn’t have any limitations or restrictions across 86% of the state, according to the state Wolf “Management” Plan. The good old boy networks in the state endorse and even openly advocate for killing wolves, and might be expected to stick up for one of their own and shield the perpetrator from meaningful consequences. Wyoming’s legal system – and its citizenry – faced their first test. The grand jury voted to indict Roberts on felony charges and send him to trial. A step in the right direction, by the community and by the justice system. But Roberts balked at going to trial.

Under the plea agreement, which must now go be accepted by the judge before it becomes official, Roberts will serve no prison time, and instead get a suspended sentence of 18-months of supervised probation. During this period, he would not be allowed to hunt, fish, possess alcohol, or enter a bar or liquor store. The plea agreement specifies that Roberts will pay a fine of $1,000 plus a Victim Compensation Surcharge of $300.

Because he is now a felon, you might expect that Roberts would be prohibited from possessing a firearm for the rest of his life. Under the Wyoming criminal code, a lifelong restriction on possessing firearms only applies to violent felonies. A “violent felony” is defined as murder, manslaughter, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, strangulation of a household member, aircraft hijacking, arson, aggravated burglary, sexual abuse of a minor, assaulting a peace officer, or “a third, or subsequent, domestic battery.” (Apparently, to its discredit, the Wyoming legislature has decided that felony convictions for the first or second instance of domestic violence do not require surrender of firearms.) So Roberts could get his guns back at the end of his probation.

Clearly, the legislature has work to do – and on more than wolves and animal torture – amending its criminal code before Wyoming can join the ranks of civilized states.

And in recognition that Cody Roberts’ depraved and sadistic torture of the wolf in the Green River Bar, and the important role of a firearm in the crime, the judge in this criminal case, at minimum, should require that Cody Roberts can never again possess a firearm. It’s the least that can be done to retrieve a measure of justice in this case.

There is no redemption for Cody Roberts. There will never be a way for him to clear his name. When he ultimately shot that young, badly injured wolf outside the bar in Daniel, Wyoming, Roberts ended the wolf’s life, future, and chance to ever lead a pack and sire pups of his own. There will never be justice for the wolf, because there is nothing the justice system can do to bring him back.

The State of Wyoming might hope for redemption, some day. The responsibility for achieving this outcome, in the eyes of a horrified world, falls squarely and heavily on the shoulders of the legislature and the Governor.

The state wolf plan should be overhauled, so that there is nowhere in the state where wolves – as they are today across the vast majority of the state – are subject to unregulated killing, by unlimited means, in unrestricted numbers. State statutes should clearly state that it is a crime to run over a wolf – or any other animal – with a snowmobile. State statutes should clarify that the torture of any animal is a criminal offense subject to felony conviction with a penalty of jail time. It is a known fact that the torture of animals is a gateway crime to murder, so if Wyoming cannot summon up the moral backbone to criminalize torture explicitly on moral grounds, it can do so on the utilitarian grounds of preventing future violence against people in the state.

Erik Molvar is Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project, and a 24-year past resident of Wyoming.