Wyoming snowmobile wolf-killer Cody Roberts cops a plea

“Oh what a big @#$%^&*! you are!”

PINEDALE,  Wyoming––Cody Roberts,  44,  of Daniel,  Wyoming,  pleading guilty to perhaps the most sensational crime involving wolves since Little Red Riding Hood,  will keep his butt out of the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.

“A signed plea agreement filed with the Sublette County District Court,”  Mike Koshmerl reported on February 26,  2026 for WyoFile, “means that Roberts,  44,  would likely no longer face trial.”

Roberts was to go to trial in Pinedale,  Wyoming,  population barely 2,000,  economically largely dependent upon hunting and fishing traffic,  on March 9,  2026.

Chose not to take his chances with a hometown jury

The entire population of Sublette County is under 9,000,  but despite the high likelihood of Roberts being tried before a jury of his cultural peers as well as fellow citizens,  Roberts apparently chose not to take his chances.

“Under the deal,”  wrote Koshmerl,  “Roberts will withdraw his earlier not guilty plea and plead guilty or no contest to felony cruelty to animals.

“The deal was signed by Roberts’ attorney,”  Robert Piper of Cheyenne,  “on February 17,  2026,”  Koshmerl explained.  “It calls for a prison sentence of 18 months to two years,  to be suspended in favor of 18 months of supervised probation and a $1,000 fine.

“Additionally,”  Koshmerl said,  “agreed-upon conditions of his probation include:  no hunting or fishing;  no alcohol,  no presence at bars or liquor stores;  and a requirement that Roberts follow recommended addiction treatment.

“Roberts will also be booked and released under the deal’s terms.”

“Posed for pictures with the wolf & even kissed her”

Roberts on February 29,  2024 ran down a female wolf on his snowmobile,  taped her mouth shut,  and showed her off in a bar before shooting her behind the bar.

“Wyoming Game & Fish’s investigation and a subsequent citation were handled without public notice in the days after the incident,”  Koshmrl reported earlier.

“Photos and video from inside the western Wyoming bar that night showed him posing for pictures with the animal and even kissing it,”  Koshmerl summarized.

“Roberts was fined $250 for possession of warm-blooded wildlife,”  Koshmrl later learned,  “though the investigating wardens could have issued steeper penalties and [could have] sent the case to court,  but declined to take that step.”

(See How snowmobile wolf killer Cody Roberts helped to restore wolf protection.)

Claimed exemption from cruelty laws

Wyoming Game & Fish Department officials,”  Koshmerl reported,  “maintained that predatory animals,  including wolves,  were exempted from felony animal cruelty laws.”

However,  Sublette County prosecutor Clayton Melinkovich in August 2025 “convened a grand jury that indicted Roberts for felony animal cruelty,”  Koshmerl continued.

A conviction could have sent Roberts to the Wyoming State Penitentiary for up to two years.  He could also have been fined up to $5,000.

Further,  noted Clair McFarland of Cowboy State Daily,  “As a convicted felon Roberts would lose his gun and voting rights.”

Under the plea agreement,  Roberts will do no prison time unless found guilty of violating  probation.

“If Roberts fails probation,”  explained McFarland,  “he could face between 18 months and two years in prison,  and pay another $4,000 in fines.

“The plea agreement says he will also pay normal court costs and fees,  including a $300 victim compensation surcharge.”

Wayne Pacelle objects

Objected Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle in an email to both organizations’ membership,  “The judge in this case,  Sweetwater County District Court Judge Richard Lavery,”  appointed after Sublette County judge Kate McKay recused herself ,   “is not bound to accept the recommended sentence.

“We respectfully urge him to reject it.”

Lavery,  explained Pacelle,  “has the authority to impose a penalty that reflects the seriousness of the crime and the intent of the Wyoming legislature in classifying extreme animal cruelty as a felony.

“The sustained nature of the abuse,”  Pacelle reminded,   “the sequence of intentional acts of malice,  is precisely why this case attracted global condemnation and why so many people subsequently viewed it as a litmus test for the proper application of Wyoming’s felony animal-cruelty statute and the principle of justice.”

Evidence to remain sealed

But even bringing Roberts to court was an uphill,  heavily politicized struggle.

“Prior to accepting the plea deal,”  Koshmerl recounted,  “Roberts sought to have the case tossed, asserting,”  as Wyoming Game & Fish had,  “that Wyoming carved out an exemption in its animal cruelty laws for animals classified as predators,  such as wolves.

“A judge rejected that argument earlier this month.”

At a change-of-pleas hearing tentatively scheduled for the first week in March 2026,  prosecutor Melinkovich “will provide a factual basis for Roberts’ guilty plea,  according to the agreement,”  Koshmerl detailed.

“Evidence presented to the grand jury that indicted Roberts will remain sealed,  though the county attorney has already previewed his arguments during earlier proceedings.”

Wyoming cruelty law strengthened

“Lawmakers have made repeated efforts,”  Koshmerl noted,  “including one successful change to animal cruelty statutes,”  in the wake of Roberts’ wolf killing.

“Other initiatives have had less traction.  There have been four unsuccessful measures to prohibit running over animals with snowmobiles in the Wyoming Legislature and two more in Congress,”  Koshmerl finished.

The successful change to animal cruelty statutes that Koshmerl mentioned,  Wyoming House Bill 275,  taking effect on July 1,  2025,  creates a crime if a person “knowingly,  and with intent to cause undue suffering,  tortures,  torments or mutilates living wildlife, including predatory animals and predacious birds,  after reducing the living wildlife to possession.”

This in effect explicitly extends at least limited protection to wolves,  coyotes,  pumas,  and other predators outside of the specific contexts of hunting,  trapping,  and protecting livestock.

But running over wolves with snowmobiles remains legal

Wyoming House Bill 275 also increased the penalty for first-time misdemeanor cruelty to animals to a maximum of six months in prison plus a fine of up to $5,000,  and made subsequent offenses felonies.

Wyoming House Bill 275 further authorized judges to revoke or suspend hunting,  fishing,  and trapping privileges as a part of cruelty sentencing.

A related item of Wyoming legislation,   HB 0003,  would have required that “Any person who intentionally injures or disables a predatory animal by use of an automotive vehicle, motor‑propelled wheeled vehicle,  or vehicle designed for travel over snow shall upon inflicting the injury or disability immediately use all reasonable efforts to kill the injured or disabled predatory animal.”

That bill,  however,  died in committee,  according to the State of Wyoming 68th legislature website,  https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2025/HB0003.

“Minimal penalties.  Little accountability.”

“Again and again,”  lamented Faith Williams,  holder of master’s degree in wildlife conservation and management,  now handling communications for Wyoming Untrapped,  in a February 4,  2026 guest column for WyoFile,  “acts of extreme harm toward wildlife and even family pets surface in Wyoming.

“The details differ,”  Williams wrote,  “but the outcomes remain strikingly similar.  Minimal penalties.  Little accountability.  A quiet return to business as usual.”

Beyond the Cody Roberts case,  Williams remembered,  a wolf “known as 1329M was born in Yellowstone and tracked by researchers studying the fragile future of wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.  When he crossed an invisible boundary and left the park,  he stepped into a steel-jawed leghold trap and remained caught for days.  When he was found,  he was dead,  likely from dehydration and exposure.  In many places, such negligence would demand accountability.  In Wyoming,  it carried a $250 fine,”  the same fine Roberts was initially assessed.

“Then there was Jester,”  Williams continued,  “a beloved family dog exploring public land near Swift Creek in Star Valley.  An illegally set Conibear trap ended his life within minutes.  His owner tried desperately to save him.  The penalty that followed was $150.  Less than many routine traffic fines.  A life lost,  reduced to a line item.

“These incidents,”  Williams wrote,  “are symptoms of policy choices that repeatedly place minimal value on animal suffering.  Low fines,  narrow definitions of cruelty and broad exemptions for certain species create a system where harm is tolerated and responsibility is blurred.”

Daughter of cop got 42 days

Wyoming law,  and courts,  however,  do relatively severely punish cruelty to domestic animals.

Reported Clair McFarland  for Cowboy State Daily on December 04, 2025,  “The 19-year-old daughter of the Rock Springs police chief was sentenced to 42 days in jail and ordered to pay $2,224.86 in restitution for poisoning her roommate’s dog so that the dog had to be euthanized.

“Originally charged with felony animal cruelty,”  McFarland continued,  “Allie Erspamer pleaded ‘no contest’ to the misdemeanor version of that charge,  in accordance with a plea agreement she signed last month.  Erspamer is the daughter of Rock Springs police chief Bill Erspamer.”

Closest parallels to Cody Roberts case all in Florida

Prosecutions for cruelty to wildlife are rare in any state.  The closest relatively recent parallels to the Cody Roberts case in the extensive ANIMALS 24-7 case files,  both in terms of the offense against wildlife and the publicity the cases generated,  all came in Florida.

Two Florida men––Michael Wenzel,  then 22,  and Robert Lee “Bo” Benac III,  then 30.,  in 2019 plea-bargained settlements of charges originally filed as felony cruelty,  after they shot and dragged a blacktip shark to death behind a speedboat on June 26,  2017 near Egmont Key in Hillsborough County waters.

Benac was sentenced to serve 10 days in the Hillsborough County jail ,  the time to be served on weekends,  plus 11 months on probation.  Benac was also to pay a $2,500 fine and perform 250 hours of community service,  half of those hours at an animal shelter,  and lost his fishing license for three years.

Wenzel accepted the same jail and probation time,  and the same fine of $2,500,  but was required to perform only 100 hours of community service,  and had his fishing privileges suspended for five years.

“Stood his ground” against iguana

PJ Nilaja Patterson,  43,  of Lake Worth,  Florida,  who killed an iguana and claimed he was “standing his ground,”  in December 2021 accepted a plea-bargained sentence to serve nine months in jail.

Most recently,  Alicia Kincheloe,  then 30,  was convicted in October 2023 of aggravated cruelty and tampering with evidence in Sarasota,  Florida,  for burning a raccoon alive after her father Roddy Kincheloe stabbed the raccoon with a pitchfork.

Alicia Kincheloe was sentenced to serve  45 days in an offender work program,  two years of intensive supervised probation,  and three additional years on probation.

Alicia Kincheloe was further ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and complete 100 hours of community service,  and prohibited from keeping pets while on probation.

Roddy Kincheloe in January 2024 accepted a plea bargain sentence including ten days in an offender work program,  a fine of $2,500,  and also a prohibition on keeping pets while on probation.

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