Chasity Larae Jacobs v. The State of Wyoming

2021 WY 104
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 22, 2021
DocketS-20-0237
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2021 WY 104 (Chasity Larae Jacobs v. The State of Wyoming) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chasity Larae Jacobs v. The State of Wyoming, 2021 WY 104 (Wyo. 2021).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT, STATE OF WYOMING

2021 WY 104

APRIL TERM, A.D. 2021

September 22, 2021

CHASITY LARAE JACOBS,

Appellant (Defendant),

v. S-20-0237

THE STATE OF WYOMING,

Appellee (Plaintiff).

Appeal from the District Court of Laramie County The Honorable Steven K. Sharpe, Judge

Representing Appellant: Office of the State Public Defender: Diane Lozano, State Public Defender; Kirk A. Morgan, Chief Appellate Counsel; Robin S. Cooper, Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel. Argument by Ms. Cooper.

Representing Appellee: Bridget Hill, Wyoming Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Deputy Attorney General; Joshua C. Eames, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Catherine M. Mercer, Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Mercer.

Before FOX, C.J., and DAVIS*, KAUTZ, BOOMGAARDEN, and GRAY, JJ.

* Chief Justice at time of oral argument.

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in Pacific Reporter Third. Readers are requested to notify the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Building, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002, of any typographical or other formal errors so that correction may be made before final publication in the permanent volume. DAVIS, Justice.

[¶1] Chasity Jacobs was a passenger in her co-defendant’s vehicle when he led law enforcement on a high-speed chase through Cheyenne, Wyoming. For her part in the crimes committed, she was convicted of one count of aiding and abetting attempted second- degree murder, one count of reckless endangering, and one count of misdemeanor possession of methamphetamine. She challenges the district court’s refusal to give her proposed jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of accessory to attempted voluntary manslaughter. She also challenges the court’s sentence on the reckless endangering and misdemeanor possession counts. We affirm but remand for correction of the district court’s written sentencing order.

ISSUES

[¶2] Ms. Jacobs presents two issues, which we state as follows:

1. Did the district court err when it declined to give Ms. Jacobs’ proposed jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of accessory to attempted voluntary manslaughter?

2. Did the district court’s written sentencing order on the reckless endangering and misdemeanor possession counts deviate from its oral pronouncement and exceed the maximum statutory sentences for those counts?

FACTS

[¶3] On May 3, 2019, Ms. Jacobs was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her co- defendant, Dominique Childers. In affirming Mr. Childers’ convictions, we described the events that led to the charges against Ms. Jacobs and him.

On May 3, 2019, Trooper Adam Powell with the Wyoming Highway Patrol was on patrol on Interstate 25 north of Cheyenne. At approximately mile post 24, he observed two vehicles traveling southbound towards Cheyenne, both exceeding the posted 80-mile-per-hour speed limit. The first vehicle was going 96 miles per hour, and the rear vehicle was going 98 miles per hour. Trooper Powell turned around in the median and began to follow the two vehicles.

Trooper Powell caught up to the first car, which had already slowed down. He activated his overhead lights, pulled it over, and instructed the driver to follow him so he could pull over

1 the second vehicle. At approximately mile post 18 he caught up to the second vehicle, which was a black Toyota sedan traveling at approximately 113 miles per hour. Trooper Powell activated his lights and sirens and attempted to pull the vehicle over, but the driver of the Toyota failed to comply, and a high- speed chase ensued.

The driver of the Toyota, later identified as Dominique Childers, continued to drive approximately 115 miles per hour and then exited the interstate at exit 13, Vandehei Avenue. Mr. Childers was still driving at a high speed when he hit the roundabout off exit 13, and then he returned to the interstate and continued southbound. He exited the interstate again at exit 12, Central Avenue, and then drove through a stop sign and oncoming traffic onto the Interstate 25 on-ramp. Instead of continuing down the on-ramp, he swerved to the right side of the ramp and traveled through the median into the parking lot of the Wyoming Department of Transportation and the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

After the Toyota drove through the parking lot, the driver’s door opened, and it came side-by-side with Trooper Powell’s pursuing vehicle. Trooper Powell was able to observe a male driver, later identified as Mr. Childers, and a female passenger, later identified as Chasity Jacobs.

Instead of stopping, Mr. Childers continued to elude Trooper Powell. Trooper Powell continued pursuing the vehicle, which was then traveling eastbound on Central Avenue. At this point, Childers’ vehicle was missing a tire, and he was driving recklessly, even in the center lane of traffic at times.

In an attempt to stop the vehicle before it entered the city limits and endangered more citizens, Trooper Powell attempted a tactical vehicle intervention. However, when he got his patrol car into position to perform the maneuver, he saw a silver pistol come out of the passenger window, and multiple rounds were fired in his direction. Consequently, he hit his brakes and distanced his vehicle from the Toyota. Mr. Childers continued on Central Avenue towards downtown Cheyenne with the trooper still in pursuit.

2 Shortly after the first shots were fired, Trooper Powell again had to swerve because an arm holding a pistol came out the driver’s window and shots were once more fired in his direction. As the chase continued, more shots were fired out the back of the Toyota, causing its back window to burst and Trooper Powell’s front windshield to spiderweb. As shots continued to be fired, Mr. Childers continued traveling towards the residential and commercial portions of Cheyenne, and more law enforcement officers joined the pursuit.

At some point, Mr. Childers turned northbound on Central Avenue, going the wrong way on that one-way street. Lyndsey Smith and her husband were pulled to the side of the road in the far-left lane of Central Avenue at 17th Street. Ms. Smith testified that Mr. Childers attempted to avoid hitting her vehicle head-on by swerving towards the sidewalk, which caused him to instead hit the driver’s side of her vehicle and a planter and tree on the sidewalk. He continued to elude police after the collision, traveling through intersections and neighborhoods at a high rate of speed.

At this point, Officer Mark Ehlman with the Cheyenne Police Department was directly behind Childers’ vehicle. Officer Geffery Eugene Mims of the Department was also pursuing the vehicle and calling out to his dispatcher each time shots were fired from Childers’ vehicle.

At the roundabout connecting 19th Street, Pershing Boulevard, and Converse Avenue, Officer Ehlman witnessed more shots being fired in the direction of law enforcement officers and decided to attempt a stop to prevent injury to other vehicles or citizens. He drove up to the driver’s side of the Toyota, pointed his service weapon out his passenger window, and fired several times towards the driver. Mr. Childers swerved north and drove across a sidewalk and through a fence, and then crashed into an embankment at the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Mr. Childers exited the vehicle with his hands in the air and got on the ground. Ms. Jacobs exited the passenger side, walked backward to the street, and also got on the ground.

Childers v. State, 2021 WY 93, ¶¶ 3-13, 493 P.3d 168, 169-70 (Wyo. 2021).

3 [¶4] When they were apprehended, Mr. Childers had more than three grams of methamphetamine, and Ms. Jacobs had 2.5 grams. The State charged Mr.

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