Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"The Darwins go fishing....."}]

Darwin 8 5 24

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>🚧 Daily Darwin: Monday, August 5, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Darwins go fishing....

Daily Darwin: Monday, August 5, 2024

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Crime & Courts

Courts

CASPER — A 31-year-old Casper is accused of plowing into multiple patrol vehicles and another truck while leading law enforcement on a wild 100 mph chase through Bar Nunn and Mills.

By the time Christopher Dylan Noah was finally stopped by authorities Saturday, two patrol vehicles and a 2018 GMC Terrain parked in front of a Bar Nunn home had been hit and the Honda Pilot Noah drove was pummeled with a shredded front right tire, according to court documents made available Thursday.

Noah faces a preliminary examination Tuesday on multiple charges after police say he fled a traffic stop and led multiple police agencies on a 30-minute chase.

He's charged with aggravated eluding, two counts of property destruction and defacement, all felonies, as well as reckless endangerment and interference with a peace officer, both misdemeanors.

“(Noah) showed a wanton disregard for human life while operating a motor vehicle throughout the incident,” a police affidavit states. “Noah had improperly displayed license plates, failed to obey (a) traffic control device when he crossed the highway median, (and) committed multiple occasions of failing to obey lawful commands by sworn law enforcement.”

Court records show a Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputy noticed the gold Honda Pilot traveling east on West Yellowstone Highway at 11:48 a.m. Saturday with an expired tab on the front plate. 

The driver turned his head away from deputy and raised his arm to hide his face.

The deputy got behind the vehicle and noticed a different plate on the back than on the front. 

When he tried to pull the vehicle over as it turned east on the U.S. Highway 20-26 interstate bypass, the Honda accelerated to 100 mph approaching the I-25 interchange. 

Noah then turned onto the freeway and headed north at high speeds.

The affidavit states Noah led the deputy off the freeway at Howard Street and turned north on Salt Creek. 

A second deputy joined the pursuit, but both deputies stopped their chase with lights and sirens because of other traffic in the area and as Noah passed several vehicles on Salt Creek Highway.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Box-In Attempt"}]

Noah sped past Bar Nunn and reentered the freeway where deputies resumed their pursuit. 

About 9 miles north, they tried to box him in front and in back with a semi in the other lane beside Noah, but he turned off on a freeway service drive and headed south at a high rate of speed.

A third deputy who had joined the chase deployed tire deflation strips just before Exit 194 at Westwinds Road on the north side of Bar Nunn. 

Noah swerved to avoid the strip, but the Honda’s front passenger tire hit one and started deflating. Noah exited the freeway and turned toward Bar Nunn. 

With his tire shredding, Noah avoided another attempt to box him in, slowed while on Wardwell Industrial Avenue in Bar Nunn. Then when deputies tried to box him in, he slammed on the brakes causing a deputy’s patrol truck to hit the rear end of the Honda.

Noah briefly stopped and a deputy got out of his vehicle, pulled his weapon and ordered Noah out of his car, grabbing the driver’s side door. 

Instead, Noah accelerated, causing the deputy to fall, then drove through a yard until re-entering Wardwell Industrial Avenue, the affidavit states.

As Noah went through a residential neighborhood in the 4000 block of Bel Vista, deputies again tried to box the Honda in. 

Noah stopped. A deputy left his patrol truck in front and drew his handgun while a deputy in a vehicle in the rear of the Honda was about to exit his truck.

“The Honda accelerated in reverse, striking the front of (the deputy’s) patrol truck,” the affidavit states. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The hood on the truck popped up."}]

Noah disregarded the deputy in front telling him to get out of the vehicle, accelerated, struck the driver’s side door on that deputy’s patrol truck and its front fender, as well as the front driver side of a GMC Terrain parked on the street.

Noah then drove down more Bar Nunn streets and again avoided a deputy’s attempt to throw spike strips.

As Noah drove south on Arena Street in the town, a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper took over primary pursuit.

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

The affidavit says the trooper performed a tactical intervention maneuver on the Honda, Noah lost control and came to a stop adjacent to Antelope Park. 

The affidavit says a deputy pulled his truck directly in front of the Honda to keep it from moving, got out and pointed his rifle at Noah “while yelling, ‘Get out of the car!'”

“Noah responded by accelerating again, driving over a tree and through the grass of the park at a high rate of speed,” the affidavit states. “The Honda cut through the parking lot of Bar Nunn Baptist Church and turned east on Sunset.”

Noah then drove to Salt Creek Highway and headed south at 35-50 mph, the affidavit states. 

Another attempt to use spikes, this time by Casper police officers, was avoided by Noah.

Deputies and officers from Casper, Wyoming Highway Patrol, and Mills pursued Noah as he drove south on Salt Creek back into Mills, east on Yellowstone Highway and then south on Van Horn at 50 mph in a 20 mph zone. 

A second state trooper tactical vehicle intervention finally stopped the Honda for good at First and 13th streets in Mills.

“The Honda lost control and hit a bridge railing on the east side of the road,” the affidavit states. 

When Noah tried to back up, a deputy “immobilized” the right rear tire.

The affidavit states that Noah refused to get out of the vehicle and a deputy broke his driver’s side window.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That’s when he finally gave up."}]

“Upon his window breaking, Noah put his hands in the air,” the affidavit states. 

Noah, who has several criminal cases in the court record, recognized a deputy who had formerly worked in the jail and said casually, “How’s it going man?”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Apologetic’"}]

Following his arrest, the affidavit states Noah was “apologetic” and “upset” about the Honda, which belonged to “an older lady for whom he was caring for.”

Noah told officers he took off because he was on probation and worried that if he was stopped, he would go to jail and have his probation revoked.

Damage to the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office vehicles was estimated at $6,000 to $8,000 for the patrol truck struck in the passenger door and $3,500 to $5,000 for truck that police say Noah reversed the Honda into.

Damage to the GMC Terrain is estimated at between $5,000 and $8,000.

Aggravated eluding carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. 

The two property destruction and defacement charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 fines.

The reckless endangerment charge is punishable by up to one year in jail and a $750 fine and the interference charge carries a potential penalty of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Noah remains in the Natrona County jail. His bond was set at $75,000.

Christopher Dylan Noah 20260114 123723 1 23 26

<title>🚧 Casper Man Plows Into Patrol Trucks During Wild 100 MPH Chase | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 31-year-old Casper is accused of plowing into multiple patrol vehicles during a wild 100 mph chase through Bar Nunn and Mills. He’ll be in court Tuesday to face multiple felony charges for what police call “a wanton disregard for human life."

Casper Man Plows Into Patrol Trucks During Wild 100 MPH Chase

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

A pilot had to make an emergency landing on U.S. 14, just outside Greybull, around 7:40 a.m. Monday. The Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) and Big Horn County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene and found the pilot unharmed and the plane undamaged.

[{"type":"text","text":"The reason for the emergency landing? The aircraft had run out of fuel. "}]

And the reason for the flight? Martin Mercer, the pilot, was flying from Hyattville to Greybull for a doctor's appointment. 

"It was just a regular old medical appointment," said WHP spokesman Aaron Brown. "We got the plane off the road and worked traffic control to make sure no one ran into it." 

Brown confirmed that Mercer made it into Greybull for his appointment. Once the aircraft, a fixed-wing single-engine Maule M-7-260C, was refueled, both lanes of U.S. 14 were temporarily blocked off so Mercer could take off and fly home to Hyattville. 

"We didn't issue any citations because this was an emergency landing," Brown said. "Part of being a WHP trooper is taking care of people, and that's exactly what we did. It was pretty cut and dry." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The $100 Burger"}]

Most people in the United States get to the doctor's office in a vehicle, whether it's their personal car, a bus, or a service like Uber or Lyft. If you have wings, why wouldn't you fly? 

 Longtime pilot and flight instructor Mitch Semel said people who own private aircraft are completely entitled to use their aircraft for whatever they'd like. In fact, it can be much more efficient. 

"One of the great things about having your own plane is that you have the freedom and luxury to fly straight," he said. "I had a client in State College, Pennsylvania, which is a four-hour drive from the suburbs of New York, but only 30 to 40 minutes by plane."

Semel referenced "the $100 hamburger," a common term in aviation that refers to the benefits and costs of traveling by aircraft. 

"It originated 50 years ago when pilots would look for any excuse to fly," he said. "The hamburger might have cost us $8 at the end of the day, but I would have spent $100 on the fuel flying there and back. But that was never the point. It was just the fun of doing it." 

Today, people use personal aircraft for a variety of personal and professional reasons. Semel said the number of uses is "as varied as the number of owners." 

In more remote states like Wyoming, using private aircraft is easier and can be more practical. Semel compared Wyoming to Alaska in that regard. 

"Alaska has the highest proportion of certificated pilots per population, because there are a lot of places that are only accessible by plane or only practically accessible because it would be hours and hours of driving," he said. "It makes more sense in population-sparse areas.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Doctors’ Distances"}]

In Western states like Wyoming, doctors are also farther away than most states.

On average, it takes people in Wyoming and other mountain states an average of 13.7 minutes to travel to the nearest hospital, according to the 

. Only two regions of the country have longer distances.

Just this year, Sublette County became the last Wyoming county to finally have a hospital of its own with the 

Sublette County Hospital. Up until then, residents in the region had been driving 70 minutes or more for medical care. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"On Air In The Air"}]

When traveling in a road vehicle, anyone can get up and go without alerting anyone. Does the same apply to a private aircraft?

According to Semel, it depends on where you are. Wyoming pilots can freely fly between several communities without alerting anyone, although it's considered best practice to announce your flight plan somewhere. 

"There are two things you can do," he said. "Pilots can file a VFR, meaning visual flight rules, that say they're planning to take off from Airport A and arrive at Airport B with the times of departure and arrival. The other way is called a flight following, where you talk to air traffic controllers all along the way." 

 tracks the flight log of any aircraft flying in the U.S. Using that information, Semel determined that Mercer's aircraft often performs position-only flights, meaning it has radar surveillance equipment on board that can be detected by air traffic control systems. 

Another determining factor for the freedom of flight is location. Semel said the United States' airspace was divided into different lettered sections in the 1980s, using letter grades to determine the rule and restrictions around the nation's busiest airspace.

"Class A is the highest airspace where commercial jets fly," he said. "The busiest airports in the busiest cities are Class B. Denver International Airport is Class B, and you need explicit permission to go through those." 

Semel said most of Wyoming's airspace would fall under Class D, so pilots have mostly unrestricted freedom to fly, weather permitting. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"You Can Do That? "}]

Mercer was heading to the doctor after an incident with one of his cattle. 

"I got run over by a cow and my wife had gotten me an appointment with (Dr. Brett) Ohman for my birthday, so that’s what I was doing,” 

. “The engine never did quit all the way, but it was sputtering pretty good.  Good way to start a Monday." 

Because they're the safest option in what could be life-or-death circumstances. That's why Mercer wasn't cited for his emergency landing on U.S. 14. 

"We don't encourage pilots to land on highways, but if you're running out of gas, you either land on the highway or you crash into the forest," Brown said. "Given the choice between the two, you're going to do what saves your life in the moment."

That doesn't mean it was an entirely happy landing. Mercer had to use his experience to get himself and the aircraft down in one piece. 

"There was some traffic (from the west), with one lady coming over the hill, but when I met her, I was able to get over quite a ways so she could pass,” he told the Greybull Standard. “The worst part, there’s a power line right there going across the road. That could have been a little dicey.”

So, yes, anyone with a private aircraft in Wyoming can choose to fly into town for their groceries, business meetings, and medical appointments. It's at the discretion of the pilot. 

"A lot of this comes down to weather conditions and visibility, but people can use their aircraft for all manner of reasons, personal and professional," Semel said. "I don't think I've heard of flying for a doctor's appointment, but that's not to say people don't do it." 

Plane on highway 12 11 25

<title>🚧 Pilot Headed To Doctor Makes Emergency Landing On Wyoming Highway | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming pilot flying to a visit with a doctor ran out of fuel and made a safe emergency landing on U.S. Highway 14 near Greybull on Monday. He made his appointment, then after refueling, authorities blocked traffic so he could take off and return home.

Daily Darwin: Monday, August 5, 2024

In case you missed it

More in Daily Darwin

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Daily Darwin: Monday, March 16, 2026

Daily Darwin: Sunday, March 15, 2026

Most read