Felony Defense Attorney Cheyenne, WY

Natrona County prosecutes a heavy felony docket, and a conviction here can mean more than a year in a state correctional facility, often much more depending on the charge. Wyoming doesn’t use felony classes, so there’s no standard sentence to point to. The penalty is written into the specific statute that the Natrona County District Attorney charges, which makes the exact wording of your case the thing that matters most. Just Criminal Law defends people facing felonies in Casper and across Natrona County. Christina L. Williams, our founding attorney, prosecuted criminal cases for the State before she built a practice defending against it.

How Wyoming Sets Felony Penalties (No Class System)

A felony in Wyoming is any crime that can put you in a state correctional facility for more than one year. A year or less is a misdemeanor (W.S. 6-10-101). Beyond that line, Wyoming does something most states don’t: it sets the penalty for each crime individually rather than grouping crimes into classes.

That has a practical effect on your case. There’s no Class B felony shorthand to tell you what’s coming. Instead, the number comes from the statute itself. A few examples of how wide the range runs:

• Aggravated assault and battery (W.S. 6-2-502): up to 10 years
• Theft of property worth $1,000 or more: up to 10 years and a $10,000 fine
• First-degree sexual assault: 5 to 50 years
• Burglary: up to 10 years, with aggravated burglary reaching 25 years and a $50,000 fine

Where the statute doesn’t name a fine, the court can still impose up to $10,000 under W.S. 6-10-102. And Wyoming’s habitual criminal law (W.S. 6-10-201) can push a third felony conviction to 10 years or even life. The takeaway is simple. Your exposure depends on the precise charge, which is the first thing we pin down.

Felony Cases in the Seventh Judicial District

Casper felony cases are handled in the Seventh Judicial District Court, with the early stages handled in the Natrona County Circuit Court. After an arrest, you’ll have an initial appearance and a bond hearing, followed by a preliminary hearing in which the State must establish probable cause. If the judge finds it, the case is bound over to the Seventh Judicial District Court for arraignment and everything that follows.

One local pattern worth knowing: Casper, like Cheyenne, has been routing more lower-level cases through municipal court, which changes where a case is heard and what’s at stake procedurally. Felony charges, though, stay in district court. The preliminary hearing is your first real checkpoint, the moment a judge decides whether the State’s evidence clears the bar to keep going. We treat it as a chance to test the case, not a formality to sit through.

The First Weeks Decide a Lot

Wyoming has no statute of limitations, so the State can take its time. The defense usually can’t afford to. Surveillance video gets recorded over, witnesses scatter, and memories blur. Bond conditions can also pile up quickly: no-contact orders, travel limits, check-ins. Getting ahead of all of it early is the difference between shaping a case and reacting to it.

A Prosecutor’s Eye on the State’s File

Christina Williams spent years deciding what to charge and how to prove it, and that experience is the core of how we defend felony cases. We read the State’s file looking for the weak seam: probable cause that’s thinner than it looks, an unlawful search, a witness whose story won’t survive cross-examination, or a charge stacked higher than the facts support to create plea leverage.

We’re honest about what that buys you. Not every felony ends in dismissal. But making the State actually prove its case and refusing to let a client sign a bad plea out of fear change outcomes more often than people assume.

Why Clients in Casper Choose Just Criminal Law

• Former prosecutor’s perspective: Christina L. Williams charged and tried cases for the State.
• Natrona County experience: We know how felony cases move through the Seventh Judicial District.
• 25+ years, 10,000+ cases: Our team has handled more than 10,000 criminal matters since 2009 across Wyoming and South Dakota.
• No false promises: We tell you what the evidence supports, and we fight for it.