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<title>🚧 You Still Here? Sunday, July 21, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Sunday, July 21, 2024

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Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Crime & Courts

Courts

CASPER — An 18-year-old Sheridan man who fought with Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers and tried to drive away after a traffic stop Saturday afternoon is also linked to crime sprees in Gillette, Sheridan and Casper, according to court records.

Bryson Cross appeared in court during his initial appearance Monday in Natrona County on four charges related to a traffic stop Saturday afternoon where police said he was a passenger in a speeding 2025 Jeep Compass on Wyoming Highway 258 in Casper.

Also Monday, a warrant was issued for his arrest out of Sheridan County on three felony charges related to stealing vehicles and weapons from those vehicles between June and October of this year.

Court records show Cross is charged in Natrona County with interference with a peace officer, possession of a controlled substance, reckless endangerment and driving while under the influence.

In Sheridan County, Cross faces charges of conspiracy to commit burglary, conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary and theft, $1,000 or more.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Kolton Carbon was on patrol Saturday afternoon when he clocked the Jeep going 60 mph in a 40-mph zone. After activating his lights, the Jeep pulled over near the intersection of WY-258 and East 2nd Street, according to an arrest affidavit.

The Jeep had an expired temporary license tag, and Carbon wrote that the driver told him he did not have his license with him. Carbon also asked the passenger for his license due to the smell of marijuana in the vehicle.

Carbon wrote that the driver seemed to be attempting to conceal his identity, and when the trooper asked him to get out of the vehicle, it appeared the driver was going to put the Jeep in gear and drive away.

As Carbon pulled the driver out of the vehicle, he told the passenger, later identified as Cross, to stay seated in the car. Carbon wrote that after handcuffing the driver and placing him beside the car on his knees, Carbon went to the passenger side and Cross jumped out and ran around the front of the vehicle and jumped into the driver’s seat.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Struggle"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Carbon pulled his weapon and chased."}]

“I was able to get ahold of Bryson’s left arm and smash the driver’s door against his left leg attempting to keep him from fleeing in the vehicle,” Carbon wrote. “I holstered my weapon and focused on applying physical control.”

The trooper reported that he opened the door and attempted to gain control over the gear selector, but Cross was able to get the vehicle in drive and started to pull away.

“I told Bryson to stop or he would be shot,” Carbon wrote. “Bryson stated he was a minor.”

At that point, Carbon wrote that a bystander arrived and went in through the passenger door and helped the vehicle stay in park and another trooper arrived to block the vehicle from being driven through the busy intersection.

With the second trooper’s assistance from the back seat, he pulled Cross from the vehicle and 

to help put Cross in handcuffs. A search of the vehicle found a loaded Glock 32 handgun on the floorboard in front of the passenger seat where Cross had been sitting. There was a round in the chamber and 12 rounds in an extended magazine, Carbon wrote.

A trooper assisting found three nicotine vape cartridges. Cross was taken to the hospital to check for any injuries. A THC vape was located in Cross’ pocket, the affidavit states.

Cross told the trooper at the hospital that he had used cocaine and Percocet along with marijuana prior to the incident, the affidavit states.

The driver was cited for careless driving, an expired registration and being a minor in possession of nicotine and released. Cross was transported to the Natrona County jail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sheridan Warrant"}]

Meanwhile, the warrant and police affidavit from Sheridan allege that from June through October, Sheridan Police officers have investigated 17 thefts from vehicles. Four of the thefts involved vehicle owners reporting missing firearms.

The affidavit by Sheridan Police Officer Meagan Phillips states that Cross’ brother, Leland Cross, was arrested in August on charges related to the auto burglaries and that two juveniles were arrested with him. Both Cross brothers as well as the juveniles had spent time in the Wyoming Boys School and were released earlier this year, the affidavit states.

Phillips wrote that on Aug. 17, a black Ford Taurus stolen from Gillette was recovered in the 1400 block of Parker Avenue in Sheridan.

“During a search … several stolen items such as cards and personal property belonging to people in Gillette, Buffalo and Casper (were recovered),” Phillips wrote. “I was informed by detectives in Gillette that Bryson Cross was a suspect in the vehicle theft of the black Taurus. I was informed by Casper Police Department that the black Ford Taurus we recovered was involved in a pursuit on (Aug. 16) in Casper.”

Phillips wrote that Bryson Cross was a suspect in the Casper incidents.

 entered a plea deal on Oct. 31 in Natrona County District Court, for his involvement in the Casper crime spree. He told the court that he and “some guys” were out stealing cars the night he was caught. The police affidavit involved in the spree showed the black Taurus as well as the stolen vehicle Forbes drove initially took off as a Natrona County Sheriff’s deputy tried to pull them over.

Several items from Buffalo residents that had been reported stolen were found in the Taurus.

Phillips wrote that five suspects arrested for vehicle burglaries by Sheridan County Sheriff’s deputies on Oct. 10, included a teen she interviewed who told her that he had been involved in “car hopping” and “gooning,” and that he believed Bryson Cross had four-to-five firearms that he had stolen from vehicles.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Handgun"}]

Phillips wrote she also interviewed a juvenile after a call from a concerned mother who found a 9 mm handgun in his bedroom. Police recovered the handgun, and the juvenile told Phillips that Bryson Cross had asked him to “conceal the firearm for him.”

The mother later called police and told the officer her son had been threatened by Cross and the juvenile recanted his story and said he had received the weapon from another teen. However, police located a photo of the same weapon on the phone of an alleged co-conspirator that indicated Cross had attempted to sell it.

Court records show Cross has had several interactions with police since 2022 that include vehicle violations, driving without a license on more than one occasion, possession of a controlled substance, a minor consuming alcohol and more.

The charges Cross faces in Natrona County are all misdemeanors and the interference with a peace officer, possession of a controlled substance, and reckless endangerment charges carry potential penalties of up to a year in jail. The driving while under the influence charge carries the potential for six months in jail.

The charges against Cross in Sheridan County are all felonies. The conspiracy to commit burglary and theft charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 fines. The conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary charge is punishable by not less than five years in prison and not more than 25 years. It also carries a potential $50,000 fine.

Cross remains in the Natrona County jail under a $7,500 cash or surety bond.

Highway patrol and Natrona county detention center 11 26 25

<title>🚧 Teen Accused Of Fighting With Troopers In Casper Also Tied To Summer Crime Sprees | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An 18-year-old Sheridan man accused of fighting with troopers during a Casper traffic stop Saturday tried to drive off with drugs and a loaded handgun in his SUV. He also faces charges related to summer crime sprees across northeast Wyoming.

Teen Accused Of Fighting With Troopers In Casper Also Tied To Summer Crime Sprees

John Thompson

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Brittany Heseltine knows straight away when a predator is nearby. The cattle she tends tell her when something's wrong. 

When they're calm, paired up and grazing, all is well. When the cows are not cooperative, spread out and bawling for their calves, there's a chance she'll find a bloody mess. 

Run-ins with predators, namely grizzly bears, black bears and wolves can be fairly common here near the headwaters of the Green River. 

Heseltine is a foreman and range rider for the Upper Green River Cattle Association. She's 31 and has worked this job for the last five years. She has three horses, four dogs, four other range riders, and 800 cattle in her charge. 

She spends five months each year, June through October, mostly on her own, working in the shadow of the Wind River Range. Days off are as rare as shooting stars, but she says it's not a bad place to hang her hat. 

People from all over the world travel through this area every summer on the Continental Divide Trail. 

The road through here is as rough as a corn cob. It leads over Union Pass and connects Dubois with Highway 352 at the north end of Kendall Valley. 

"If I get lonely and want to talk to someone, there's always people on the road," she said. 

Sometimes the ranchers she works for stop in to say hello and bring salt for the cattle. Her boyfriend and family members stop in once in a while too. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Green River Drift"}]

Eleven ranchers are members of the cattle association. They turn out about 5,000 head of cattle every spring. It's part of the famous Green River Drift, a 58-mile-long cattle trail used continuously since the 1890s.

The Drift as it's known, was featured by the television news magazine “60 Minutes” in 2021. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Day by Day"}]

Every morning she saddles up and heads out among the grazing pastures surrounded by dense mixed conifer forest. The grass is lush this year.  

She understands that predators own the night and that makes mornings the most interesting time of the day. She's like a detective traveling out to investigate a potential crime scene. 

First off, her border collies, Tory, Jenny, Gyp and Roe fan out among the willows in a river bottom. They will "clean out" this area, pushing cattle uphill to the open ridges and sidehills where she wants them to graze for the day. 

"The cattle tend to move down into the river bottom at night," she said. "They prefer to be out on open, flat ground so there aren't a lot of obstacles in their way if they need to escape. But they come down here because they know it's safer when they're closer to people." 

After they clean the river bottom, she rides among the herd and checks for any animals that might have respiratory problems or lameness. Dealing with foot rot, pneumonia, pink eye and other ailments are among a range rider's common tasks. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Doctoring"}]

Her saddlebag unbuckles and folds open to reveal a veterinary kit containing a large bottle of oxytetracycline, syringes, needles and a marking crayon. With a sick calf she'll rope it, throw it and hold it down with her knees to give it a shot, while her horse holds the rope tight. Then she'll mark it with a crayon and record the calf's ear tag number and brand. 

She knows how to estimate a sick cow's weight and calculate the correct dosage of medicine. Heseltine earned two associate degrees from Western Wyoming College and a Bachelor of Animal Science from the University of Wyoming.

With the bigger yearlings, cows and bulls she has the option to call for help from another range rider, or she knows a couple of tricks. The first, easiest, and less risky is to pull out her dart gun and administer medicine from a distance. 

The other is to rope the animal and if it will stand quietly with the rope around its neck she will toss a length of the rope around the front of its body on the ground and try to get it to step over the rope. If it steps just right she can catch the rear legs and the head at the same time and put it on the ground where she can administer medicine. 

Most of the ailments she encounters aren't difficult to diagnose, she said. With foot rot there will be swelling and lameness, pink eye causes runny red eyes and with respiratory diseases they have a hard time breathing. 

"When they're stressed their ears are droopy and they'll hold their head low," she said. "But you have to know the difference between sick and just tired because you just pushed them up a hill." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Investigating Depredation"}]

"Walking wounded" is another problem she sometimes encounters. This is when a calf is injured by a predator but still on its feet. When this happens, she ropes and throws the animal on the ground and then ties its legs together. It waits that way until Wyoming Game and Fish shows up to investigate what happened. 

She will use an In-Reach satellite phone to send Game and Fish a message and a location with a global position sensor. Then a predator biologist will drive up and investigate what happened and try to pin down the culprit. 

Bears generally leave wounds on an animal's back between its front shoulders and on its brisket. Wolves leave bite marks on the back legs and rump. When they find a dead cow or calf they will skin it and look for teeth marks to determine what killed it, she said. 

Ranchers can receive a payout from the state when predators are proven responsible for livestock deaths. 

Sometimes she will find an animal that died from natural causes and a predator came along after the death and fed on the carcass. In this case she'll skin the carcass and look for pooling blood or bruising from bite marks. If there's no bruising of the meat or pooling blood under the hide, it's most likely the predator didn't kill it, she said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Day To Day"}]

On other days Heseltine will ride along and fix fences, pack salt blocks for the cattle to lick or move cattle from one pasture to the next. When it's time to change pastures a Forest Service range manager and the grazing association president come up and take measurements of the plants growing at specified places. They measure the same spots every year. 

"They take measurements at several sites and calculate an average length of the grass," she said. "If the average meets their requirements, then I have a couple of days before I change pastures. If the average is below their requirements, I start moving cattle immediately." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What’s required"}]

Range riders provide their own horses, dogs, horse trailers, trucks and tack. They also shoe their own horses so they need the tools for that job. The grazing association provides five cabins for the riders. Heseltine starts the season living in a house trailer and will move to a higher elevation cabin later this summer. 

In her spare time she likes Marvel movies and fantasy novels. She also spends time making chaps, purses and other leather goods. She has a small house trailer where she keeps a heavy-duty leather sewing machine and the other tools of that trade. 

As a youngster she rode horses but didn't have any experience with livestock until she was 16. Her stepfather Eddie Wardell, a Big Piney rancher, took her along to fix fences once and she met a woman range rider and decided that was what she wanted. 

"Eddie wasn't sure if I could handle this work, but after college they had an opening and I jumped at it," she said. "After my first year, Albert (Sommers) who was the grazing association president at the time, said 'you're coming back next year right?' I said if you'll have me. Now the current president Coke Landers told me I can't quit." 

John Thompson can be reached at News@CowboyStateDaily.com

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<title>🚧 Wyoming People: Brittany Heseltine Is A Real Working Cowgirl And Range Rider | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Brittany Heseltine is foreman and range rider for the Upper Green River Cattle Association. She has 3 horses, 4 dogs, 4 other range riders, and 800 cattle in her charge. She spends 5 months each year, June through October, mostly on her own, working in the shadow of the Wind River Range.

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