Jerry Justice III

A Cody man has been convicted of aggravated assault for threatening to use a pistol in an altercation that reportedly stemmed from a botched attempt to steal a dog.

According to evidence presented at last week’s trial in Park County District Court, Jerry C. Justice III threatened to shoot the dog’s owner during the August 2021 incident.

“This is a mother [expletive] nine millimeter … I’ll put it in your mother [expletive] neck. Get the [expletive] back. I will pull this mother [expletive] trigger,” Justice could be heard saying on a recorded 911 call from that night.

The dog’s owner, Amanda “Sam” Farlow, testified that Justice also shoved his handgun in her mouth and pistol-whipped her with it.

Justice took the stand in his own defense to dispute the allegations, contending it had been a case of self-defense. The 34-year-old said he’d been trying to break up a fight between Farlow and his girlfriend, who had allegedly taken Farlow’s dog.

However, Deputy Park County Attorney Larry Eichele argued the fight between the two women had not been that serious and that Justice escalated the conflict.

“You have not heard any evidence that he was in fear of death or serious bodily harm to himself or his girlfriend,” Eichele told jurors Friday, at the close of a four-day trial.

Wyoming law allows a person to use or threaten to use deadly force if it’s “reasonably necessary” to defend a person from serious bodily injury.

“That force to draw that gun and put it in [Farlow’s] face is not reasonable in what [Justice] testified to was a ‘girl fight,’” Eichele argued.

After roughly four hours of deliberation, the 12-member jury agreed and found Justice guilty of aggravated assault and battery.

The panel also convicted Justice of a misdemeanor count of interference with a peace officer for lying to Cody police about his role in the incident. However, they acquitted him of a count of conspiracy to commit theft, which related to the alleged dognapping.

“We have absolutely no evidence that my client had any idea that a dog was going to be stolen that night,” said Bethia Kalenak, Justice’s defense attorney. She told jurors that Justice hadn’t been involved in any theft.

Eichele conceded the charge was “arguably problematic,” because authorities had no direct evidence that Justice was involved in a plan to steal the dog. However, the prosecutor said it was clear “this was all over the dog Blue.”

Charging documents say another Cody resident, Madason Peterson, felt she was Blue’s rightful owner. Peterson initially told police “it was all a wild coincidence that her friends/neighbors attempted to steal Blue,” Cody Police Detective Scott Burlingame wrote in charging documents. However, Peterson later said she, Justice and Justice’s girlfriend, Amanda Wright, went to Farlow’s residence on the night of Aug. 28, 2021 to “check on” Blue.

An affidavit by Burlingame says Farlow was hosting a party that night inside a wall tent on A Street. Wright entered the gathering and, according to charging documents, eventually took Blue, putting the dog in her truck and directing Peterson to drive away. However, Farlow and another individual jumped into the bed of the truck in an attempt to retrieve Blue.

When the truck came to a stop, Wright tried to get everyone and the dog out of the vehicle, charging documents say, and she got into what police described as a “minor physical altercation” with Farlow.

Justice, who was on foot, saw Farlow and Wright fighting and intervened, though what exactly he did was disputed.

Two witnesses told police in 2021 that they saw Justice put the muzzle of his pistol into Farlow’s mouth, corroborating her account; one said he saw Justice pistol-whip Farlow twice in the back of the head. Peterson — the woman who claimed ownership of Blue — similarly told police that Justice had “mentioned jamming a gun in someone’s mouth to the point that Jerry [Justice] thought he broke Sam [Farlow]’s teeth out.”

However, at last week’s trial, Justice denied hitting Farlow with the gun or putting it in her mouth. The charge he was convicted of states only that he “threatened to use a drawn deadly weapon.”

“He tried to stop the fight; [it] didn’t work. … He punched Ms. Farlow in the face in an attempt to stop the fight; it didn’t work. Ms. Farlow then advanced on my client and at that point, that is when he pulled the gun,” Kalenak, the defense attorney, told jurors.

She added that, “In retrospect, maybe he [Justice] realized he shouldn’t have done it. But what matters [under the law] is actually what he thought in that moment.”

Eichele, the prosecutor, said the case came down to deciding whether Justice was legally allowed “to do what he did.”

Both attorneys told jurors they needed to decide if they believed Farlow’s or Justice’s account of what happened.

After the jury returned with the guilty verdicts Friday evening, Justice was taken into custody to await a sentencing hearing. Prosecutors have not announced what sentence they will seek from presiding District Court Judge Bill Simpson; aggravated assault is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Last year, Wright and Peterson each received six months of unsupervised probation and $420 worth of court fines and fees for misdemeanor counts of interference with a peace officer. Like Justice’s case, those charges stemmed from their initially lying to police about the incident. No one was specifically convicted of stealing Blue.