Your source for news in Hot Springs County

News briefs from around Wyoming

From Wyoming News Exchange newspapers.

Trial for Cody couple delayed to August for possible plea agreement

CODY (WNE) – The jury trials for the Cody couple charged with abusing their 15-year-old child by putting her in cruel confinement have been delayed until Aug. 7 due to possible plea agreements.

Jacob Wayne Guyer, 38, and Christine Philbrook, 48, were charged separately in 2021, each with one count of child abuse after they allegedly locked the child in a room for several hours a day, under poor living conditions and with little food.

Both Guyer, the child’s father, and Philbrook, her stepmother, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Dec. 21 during their arraignments in Park County District Court. They were initially scheduled to appear for separate jury trials in April, but both waived their right to a speedy trial in March.

Park County Law Enforcement was dispatched to the home in July of 2021 on a report of property damage, after Guyer said his daughter had knocked a hole in an adjoining wall in order to escape her locked room and find food, the affidavit said.

Park County Patrol Sgt. Phil Johnson described the child’s room as 10 feet by 15 feet. He said the only objects in the room were a sleeping bag, pillow, bag of chips, water bottle, security camera, television and a five-gallon bucket in the corner with a roll of toilet paper, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Johnson said the child looked “emaciated” and worse than she did several months before when he first met her after she had run away from home. The child told police that after going to school and doing house chores, she was locked in her bedroom until the next morning.

Doctors at Cody Regional Health were concerned that she weighed only 93 pounds, the affidavit said.

...

Powell, Cody among schools targeted by hoax calls

POWELL (WNE) – Officials were able to quickly debunk a hoax that falsely claimed there had been a shooting at Powell Middle School on Monday.

Schools in Powell, Cody and other parts of Wyoming were targeted by the hoax phone calls on Monday morning — apparently the same hoax that swept across Montana, Idaho and Utah in recent weeks.

At 9:38 a.m., a male called the Powell Police Department and falsely reported that shots had been fired at Powell Middle School; the caller claimed to be inside the school, Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt said.

All reports are taken seriously, but after seeing this hoax pass through other states, the police department and school district had already made plans on a response if the scam came here. Thanks to the protocols they had put in place, Park County School District 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis said officials were able to confirm the call was a hoax within 90 seconds.

Police officers responded to and entered the middle school, “but that’s about as far as it got,” Eckerdt said.

The Powell department also passed along word to the Cody Police Department, which received a similar hoax call just minutes later, at 9:43 a.m.

In that case, the caller claimed shots had been fired at both Cody High School and Cody Middle School, with multiple people possibly injured.

Cody police officers and Park County Sheriff’s deputies responded “rapidly,” and “quickly determined the reports were unfounded,” police said.

However, officers proceeded to perform walkthroughs and security checks at all Park County schools as a precaution. Both the Powell and Cody school districts were able to remain in normal operations, though they notified students’ families of the hoax.

Multiple law enforcement agencies around Wyoming — including in Casper — received similar calls at around the same time Monday morning.

 

Reader Comments(0)