Roberts will avoid prison time if he stays out of trouble while on probation for animal cruelty.
by Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile
Calling Cody Roberts’ maiming and capturing of a wolf “cruel,” a judge on Wednesday sentenced him to 18 months of probation as part of a plea deal that will keep the western Wyoming man out of prison if he stays out of trouble.
Sweetwater County District Judge Richard Lavery imposed the penalty, which also includes a $1,450 fine and a suspended prison sentence of up to two years, for Roberts’ guilty plea to one felony count of animal cruelty. He imposed the sentence in the Sublette County Courthouse in Pinedale at a hearing attended by about 25 people, with another dozen or so viewing a livestream video in another chamber.
“I have to be honest with you, Mr. Roberts,” Lavery told the defendant, who steadily engaged the judge with eye contact, “the charge in this case is disturbing.”
Roberts, a 44-year-old father of four, used a snowmobile to pursue, run over and maim a wolf in Sublette County on Feb. 29, 2024. He taped the wounded animal’s jaws closed, took it to the Green River Bar in Daniel and displayed it for some time before taking it out back and killing it. When photos from that night became public, global outrage ensued.
Lavery acknowledged that predators, as the wolf was classified by Wyoming laws, can be killed at any time and by any means.
“It can’t be done in a cruel manner,” the judge said. “It’s not that you captured a wolf, it’s what happened after.
“The keeping of the animal was cruel,” Lavery said. “That was the crime.”
Roberts spoke at the sentencing hearing only to briefly answer routine questions posed by the judge.
A pre-sentencing report provided no facts or circumstances to unsettle a Feb. 17 plea agreement Roberts reached with Sublette County Prosecuting Attorney Clayton Melinkovich earlier this year.
But the judge found that alcohol, which he called Roberts’ “substance of choice,” was a factor in the incident and in Roberts’ life, and abstaining would be significant in his supervised probation.
The terms
Under his probation terms, Roberts will not be allowed to hunt or fish, including hunting for shed antlers, for the 18 months of his probation. Another condition calls for “no alcohol” and prohibits Roberts from entering or being present in a bar, lounge or liquor store.
Along with the fine, Roberts must pay court costs and a $300 victim surcharge. Conditions require him to follow the recommendations resulting from an addiction severity index evaluation, which the judge said was a level-one alcohol program.
Lavery told Roberts to “lead a worthy and reputable life,” and not associate with “persons of negative character.” Roberts must supply a DNA sample to officials, must not possess a police scanner and must not own “weapons or firearms deemed dangerous.”
He found Roberts “remorseful about what happened.”
Roberts apologized when he pleaded guilty at a March 5 court hearing in Pinedale as part of the plea agreement. “I sincerely regret my actions and apologize to the community and my family,” he told Lavery in court.
The judge was not required to accept the agreement, but he did.
Prosecutor Melinkovich called the agreed-upon sentence appropriate and in line with goals to rehabilitate an offender, punish him or her, educate the public and deter similar acts. That needs to be balanced with the impact prison can have on a convict’s life, he said.
Melinkovich quoted from a Wyoming Supreme Court case in which the high court cautioned sentencing judges to isolate themselves from the pleas of “sob-sister types” and those seeking vengeance. After Roberts’ actions became public, there were loud calls online that he should face a stiff penalty.
Lavery said he found “not very much” criminal history in the pre-sentencing investigation. “Things noted by the court were alcohol-related.”
No second chances
“I think there are things you can get out of this probation,” the judge told Roberts, warning him not to evade or dodge his commitments. “You will invariably get caught,” Lavery said.
Sinning and asking for forgiveness is “off the table,” he said. “There’s a lot hanging over you.”
Roberts’ attorney, Robert Piper, called the sentence “an equitable action.” Several people who sat behind Roberts during the sentencing would not comment outside the courthouse after the hearing.
Under Wyoming law, the crime was a non-violent offence, Melinkovich said.
“I have to be honest with you, Mr. Roberts, the charge in this case is disturbing.”
Judge Richard Lavery
After the incident in 2024, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department fined Roberts $250 for possessing wildlife. The agency rejected animal cruelty charges on the grounds that they do not apply to predators.
Photographs of Roberts posing with the captured, muzzled wolf while clutching a can of beer created international outrage, calls for boycotts of Wyoming tourism and for reform of state laws. The Wyoming Legislature, however, failed to pass a law prohibiting persons from running over predators with snowmobiles, requiring only that the animal be quickly killed.
Melinkovich pursued the cruelty charge by empaneling the grand jury. It indicted Roberts in August on the felony cruelty count, which carries a maximum two-year sentence.
The incident divided Sublette County residents and led to threats and waves of disruptive social media posts and recriminations. Lavery said he was swamped with comments “from around the world.”
“I don’t read those,” he said. “As I sit on the bench, I’m not a political person.
“People object to the treatment of wildlife by the people of Wyoming,” Lavery said. But changing laws is “up to the Legislature.”
Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy are now urging Congress to pass the SAW Act, legislation designed to strengthen federal protections against the use of snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles to chase, injure, or torment wildlife, according to a statement. “While we would have preferred prison time for Roberts, we are grateful to [the] Sublette County prosecutor and the judge for securing a felony conviction for cruelty to animals in this case,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the two groups.
Wyoming has formulated a plan to deal with wolves and their killing of livestock and, the judge said, Game and Fish wardens who implement it “are second to none.”
Roberts captured the wolf on private land, according to the prosecutor. Jackson’s community radio station, KHOL, broke the news of the incident in a report by Executive Director Emily Cohen.
Lavery acknowledged the state’s unique wildlife heritage and citizens’ responsibilities toward it.
“We have a front-row seat to nature,” he told Roberts. “It’s right out your front door. We have an obligation to allow that to occur and not be cruel.
“Mr. Roberts, good luck on your journey.”
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
