Suspects held on $100K bonds in connection with Powell-Cody crime spree

Posted 3/26/20

Park County prosecutors have filed a stack of felony charges against three people suspected of participating in a weekend crime spree, which included two high-speed chases in Powell and Cody. The …

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Suspects held on $100K bonds in connection with Powell-Cody crime spree

Members of the Powell Volunteer Fire Department look over a totaled Powell Police Department patrol car, which was struck by a stolen truck during an early Saturday morning pursuit on West Coulter Avenue. Police clocked the truck going 83 mph down Ingalls Street shortly before the crash. The chase was part of an extensive crime spree that took place on Friday and Saturday in Powell and Cody.
Members of the Powell Volunteer Fire Department look over a totaled Powell Police Department patrol car, which was struck by a stolen truck during an early Saturday morning pursuit on West Coulter Avenue. Police clocked the truck going 83 mph down Ingalls Street shortly before the crash. The chase was part of an extensive crime spree that took place on Friday and Saturday in Powell and Cody.
Photo courtesy Powell Police Department
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Park County prosecutors have filed a stack of felony charges against three people suspected of participating in a weekend crime spree, which included two high-speed chases in Powell and Cody. The three suspects — Winter R. Killsnight, 25, Shay A. Dontmix, 24, Shyanna C. Wilson, 23, all of Montana — were being held in the Park County Detention Center on Wednesday, with bail set at a hefty $100,000 for each defendant. A fourth, unidentified suspect may still be at large.

Deputy Park County Attorney Jack Hatfield said in Circuit Court on Monday that the defendants “decided to prey upon this community, take advantage of an emergency situation [the COVID-19 pandemic], commit numerous serious felonies while they’re present in the community.”

According to the narrative laid out by police in court documents, Killsnight, Dontmix and Wilson drove from Billings to Cody in a stolen car on Friday night and proceeded to commit a string of crimes. They allegedly burglarized a vehicle and shot a trailer in Cody before stealing a truck and speeding to Powell early Saturday morning. They then led police on a chase before the truck collided with a Powell police officer’s patrol car — totaling it — and went into the canal. The driver of the stolen car, meanwhile, later led police on a second chase that went all the way back to Cody at recorded speeds of up to 100 mph before finally being stopped by spike strips.

Killsnight, of Billings, Dontmix of Lodge Grass,  and Wilson, of Hardin, are each facing seven felony charges — two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary and two counts of aggravated burglary, conspiracy to commit theft, robbery and aggravated fleeing or eluding police — plus a misdemeanor count of possessing a controlled substance. In theory, the defendants could face up to 126 years in prison if they were convicted on all counts and given the maximum sentences for each offense.

However, charging documents filed Monday indicated that authorities remained uncertain as to who played what role in which crimes. Dontmix, Wilson and Killsnight all contended in court on Monday that they were being charged with felonies they hadn’t committed.

For instance, Killsnight said she had only been a passenger.

“I don't understand how, just because I was in the car, that I’m getting charged with everything,” she told Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters.

Meanwhile, Dontmix asserted that he and Wilson — who he identified as his wife — had parted ways with whoever participated in the chases and other crimes.

After arriving in Cody, “We got out, like, before all that happened, before all the police and everything because we heard all that stuff going,” Dontmix said.

When prosecutor Hatfield recommended that his bond be set at $100,000 cash, Dontmix told the judge that “I had nothing to do with all of this.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Dontmix said. “I mean, I don’t understand it, sir.”

“I’m not sure I do, either,” Waters replied. “But hopefully you can get your attorney on board, discuss the matter with your attorney and hopefully get it sorted out to some degree fairly quickly.”

The prosecution’s case appears to hang largely on statements made by Killsnight after her arrest which — at least in the version laid out in charging documents — were light on the details of who did what.

She allegedly told police that Dontmix, Wilson and a man she knew only as “G” had picked her up in Billings on Friday night, arriving in what was a stolen 2020 Hyundai Accent.

“Killsnight explained all four occupants started consuming alcoholic beverages, smoked marijuana and used methamphetamine during their time together,” Cody Police Officer Brett Tillery wrote in a sworn statement used to support the charges.

By Killsnight’s reported account, the four arrived in Cody around 9:30 p.m. and burglarized a vehicle on Stampede Avenue.

Killsnight admitted to having stolen a pair of Puma running shoes from that car and said they “were also involved in … a shotgun being discharged into a trailer in Juby’s Trailer Park,” Tillery recounted in his affidavit; Hatfield said the defendants shot a hole in the property “for some unknown reason.”

Then, shortly after 3 a.m., the group allegedly stole a 2008 Chevy pickup that had been left running outside a Cody resident’s 26th Street home.

The owner reported the truck as stolen at 3:14 a.m. Less than 20 minutes later, Powell Police Officer Reece McLain spotted the stolen Chevy and the Accent speeding into town from Cody, clocking the truck at 96 mph on Coulter Avenue.

The truck eventually headed north onto Hamilton Street before turning and coming south down Ingalls Street at a high rate of speed.

McLain tried to block the truck, but he said it accelerated and headed straight for him. The officer came to a stop to avoid a head-on collision and it was a near-miss, he said. However, as the speeding Chevy turned west onto Coulter Avenue, it hit a different patrol car being driven by Officer Cody Bradley. The southbound truck was estimated to have been traveling at 83 mph down Ingalls Street and the force of the blow to the rear driver’s side of Bradley’s Dodge Charger triggered his airbags and spun him around. The officer was OK, but sore from the crash, Powell police said; the Charger, purchased for around $26,000 last summer, was a total loss.

Meanwhile, the stolen Chevy wound up continuing across Coulter Avenue and crashing into the mostly empty Garland Canal.

McLain spotted a woman — later identified as Killsnight — running from the scene, caught up to her and arrested her.

She immediately denied being the driver and said “G” had been behind the wheel, according to McLain’s affidavit.

“Killsnight stated she did not know if ‘G’ got out of the truck or not and that she was still pretty drunk and had hit her head pretty hard,” McLain wrote.

An open bottle of whiskey was found near the vehicle, with a sawed-off shotgun on the floor of the cab. In Killsnight’s purse, meanwhile, officers found “numerous vehicle relays and fuses,” a glass bowl with apparent THC wax, a small jewelry bag labeled “stay high” with apparent meth inside and another small baggie containing apparent cocaine.

Police initially believed that Killsnight had been the driver. However, officers later obtained surveillance camera footage from the nearby Maverik gas station that showed a second person fleeing from the driver’s side of the wrecked truck.

Meanwhile, as police and troopers with the Wyoming Highway Patrol worked the crash, McLain saw the Hyundai Accent that had sped into town with the truck pass by the scene on Coulter Avenue. That triggered another pursuit.

The stolen car sped toward Cody on U.S. 14-A, reaching speeds of more than 100 mph, said Powell Police Sgt. Matt McCaslin.

Cody police were notified around 6:15 a.m. that the chase was heading their way and they put down spike strips on the highway near Beacon Hill. About 8 minutes later, the Accent arrived in the area and hit the spike strips, which brought the vehicle to a stop in the 3500 block of Big Horn Avenue.

At that point, “the suspect(s) fled on foot in an unknown direction,” Cody Police Officer John Harris said in a news release, and an hours-long search of the area failed to locate them. In that news release — which was issued around 2:30 p.m. Saturday — Cody police announced they had “received information regarding persons of interest in this case, and the suspect(s) of the second vehicle [the Accent] are not considered to be at large.”

However, several hours later — around 8 p.m. — Wilson and Dontmix were arrested at the Cody Walmart for shoplifting. The couple was stopped by store personnel as they attempted to leave with two cans of compressed air and a coat, charging documents say, valued at $51.54.

Dontmix reportedly told police that he and Wilson were shoplifting “because they were stranded and cold,” Cody Police Officer Patrick Geraghty wrote in an affidavit.

Police also reportedly found a small green baggie with apparent meth in Wilson’s purse and two used syringes and a glass pipe in Dontmix’s pocket; he “admitted to using methamphetamine earlier in the morning,” Geraghty wrote.

At his Monday afternoon appearance in Circuit Court, Dontmix acknowledged his shoplifting arrest, but questioned why he was being charged with the vehicle chases and thefts.

“How are me and my wife [Wilson] tied into all this?” Dontmix protested to Judge Waters.

Dontmix began to protest that he’d been picked up on a separate charge, when Waters cut him off.

“I understand,” the judge said. “Discuss that with your attorney.”

Preliminary hearings for Killsnight, Wilson and Dontmix — where Waters will determine whether there’s enough evidence for the charges to move toward a trial in District Court — are tentatively set for Friday morning.

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