CODY (WNE) – A man seen on video apparently using the cone of Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park as a toilet provoked a hullabaloo with his unusual actions and was arrested by Park rangers last Friday.
Although facing violations that include leaving the trail in a thermal area, interfering with an agency function and disorderly conduct, the individual was released on bond.
Gabriel Villalva of Greeley, Colo., was identified Tuesday as the culprit. The charges do not specifically spell out a charge on Villalva for relieving himself at Old Faithful.
He is scheduled for an appearance at the Yellowstone Justice Center Nov. 8.
Apparently more than one video was recorded of the man at Old Faithful, including on Yellowstone’s webcams.
It is illegal to wander from the footpaths and approach thermal features – as well as dangerous.
In one recording, a man is seen walking up to the steaming geyser between its periodic eruptions. His back is turned to a crowd of what was estimated to be a couple of hundred people and someone exclaimed that he was peeing.
After appearing to urinate on Old Faithful, the man lay down, head over the edge of the cone. Then he rose, appeared to stumble on the hot ground, got up again and walked off.
When he returned to the approved pathway, rangers took the man into custody in the parking lot by the Old Faithful Inn.
Villalva was ordered to sit down on a curb, but according to citations did not immediately comply. Instead, he “began to sing.” No song was identified.
He started to walk away and lit a cigarette, halting after a Park ranger pulled out a Taser and threatened to use it on him.
Man sentenced to nine years for
fracturing woman’s eye socket
GILLETTE (WNE) – A 29-year-old man who punched his girlfriend so hard he fractured her eye socket will spend up to nine years in prison.
Jacinto Guajardo will serve his five- to eight-year prison sentence concurrently to a federal sentence.
A jury convicted him June 13 of aggravated assault and battery for punching her several times in the face Nov. 30 after discovering another man’s number in her phone. He had been dating the 23-year-old woman for two months.
She later dropped him off at the Volunteers of America, where he was an inmate, before returning home. She told her father she had been in a car crash, and he advised her to go to the emergency room.
At the hospital, she registered under a false name, was treated and received a prescription for pain medication. The pharmacy later flagged the prescription as suspicious, and she was arrested Dec. 7 for possible prescription fraud. Charges against her were never filed.
While officers interviewed her about the prescription, she told them she had gone to the hospital after her boyfriend had punched her, but she refused to give officers his name. When she was being moved inside the jail, officers heard Guajardo yell for his “babe” and tell her not to speak to police. She later confirmed that Guajardo had punched her.
Although there were no witnesses to the assault, medical professionals confirmed that her injuries lined up with her story and DNA found in blood samples from the car matched her DNA.
Supreme Court rejects sexual assault appeal
CODY (WNE) – A former Cody nurse’s appeal to exclude evidence related to his sexual assault of patients was rejected by the Wyoming Supreme Court Sept. 10.
Due to the decision, Robert W. Guty’s no contest plea is now active and the defendant will be subject to the sentence negotiated last October by Park County District Attorney Bryan Skoric and Guty’s criminal defense attorney Ian Sandefer: a suspended five to seven year split sentence, with one year in jail and four years to be served on supervised probation.
Guty entered a conditional nolo contendere, or “no contest” plea to third degree sexual assault of a patient under general anesthesia in Oct. 2017, agreeing to preserve all evidence in relation to the case.
Guty then appealed his case to the Supreme Court after district court judge Bill Simpson ruled Guty guilty of third degree sexual assault.
The Supreme Court rejected Guty’s dispute of evidence, contending that if certain pieces of evidence were retained while others rejected, it would put the entire no contest plea deal into jeopardy.
