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 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.
No hunting, fishing, bars or liquor stores
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.
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.
Conditions require him to follow the recommendations resulting from an addiction severity index evaluation, which the judge said was a level-one alcohol program.
Roberts must pay court costs and a $300 victim surcharge.
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.”
This story first appeared at WyoFile.com on April 8, 2026. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.