By BRENDA TENBOER
Confessed poacher Gary Vorhies, 48, was sentenced illegally and the sentence should be overturned, according to Wyoming Office of the Public Defender appellate counsel Tina Kerin.
Kerin argued in an appeals hearing in civil court on June 24 before District Court Judge Stephen Cranfill that officials used undue delay and violated Vorhies’ right to a speedy trial by filing charges nine years after crimes were committed.
Big Horn County and Prosecuting Attorney Georgia Antley Hunt told Cranfill during the hearing that she had no argument in the case and would stand on court records.
Antley Hunt failed to respond to requests for information from the Public Defender’s Office, according to Kerin.
Vorhies was contacted by Wyoming Department of Game & Fish officials early on in the case and was aware of some type of investigation, according to Kerin.
Years passed, Vorhies was stopped for traffic violations on at least two separate occasions and no outstanding warrants were listed, she said. Charges were filed in separate poaching crimes in Park County in November 2005 and Vorhies served a jail sentence, still with no outstanding warrants listed.
Kerin said prosecutors waited years to file charges in the case violating the speedy trial component, and the sentence should be thrown out.
Vorhies has now been in jail for nearly 12 months and has lost the private business he started in Colorado because of undue delay in filing charges.
“He had a valid driver’s license with a current address,” she said. “No effort was made to bring him back, he lived openly under his own name and no warrants were out until 2009.”
Once returned to Big Horn County, Vorhies, under the false assumption his public defender was doing nothing to help his case, became impatient and indicated to the court he was going to proceed on his own. Vorhies should have been advised of the danger of proceeding pro-se, or without legal counsel, and been made aware of the efforts his public defender did make on his behalf, according to Kerin.
Finally, Vorhies sentence should be thrown out because it is illegal, she argued.
The four concurrent sentences equal nearly a year in jail, but the way the sentencing order is worded indicates Vorhies would serve four years of probation beginning on his release date from jail.
Wyoming statutes provide a one-year maximum sentence on each count, the wording of the order makes it illegal because of the extra probation time, according to Kerin.
“At the very least he should be released from jail and finished with his sentence,” she said.
Cranfill ended the hearing and indicated he would take some time to review the case before rendering a decision.