Archive - Sep 2010 - News

It took the jury just under three hours to render three guilty verdicts in the State vs. Dennis Poitra, Jr. case in 4th Judicial District Court Thursday evening.

At 2 o'clock, the jury convened to hear instructions from Judge John Fenn. Among the instructions, he explained the three counts and the subtexts of each.

It has been a very eventful week for Wyoming Highway Patrol Troopers to say the least. The unusual events began Tuesday when Troopers were called out to a report of a tractor trailer that had a tire on fire at the west Gillette interchange on Interstate 90.

While the last 3rd Thursday Street Festival in downtown Sheridan is still several weeks away, it's not too early to get signed up for the Chilifest chili cook-off. Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Janelle Anderson explains a few of the particulars of the contest.

Twenty six families and their corresponding farms and ranches were honored with a 2010 Centennial Farm and Ranch award at a recent ceremony in Douglas. The families were recognized for owning and operating the same agricultural property for 100 years or more. 

The State vs. Dennis Poitra, Jr. trial began at 10 o'clock this morning, with more people in the gallery than had been up to that point. Before bringing in the jury, Judge John Fenn said to Poitra that he'd been advised by the defense counsel that Poitra would like to testify.

After the State rested Wednesday afternoon in Dennis Poitra, Jr.'s trial, the Defense called three witnesses to the stand.

Dr. Trent Holmberg of Salt Lake City, UT took the stand as the Defense team's expert witness. Dr. Holmberg is Board Certified in Adult and Forensic Psychology, and has done hundreds of psych evaluations in Wyoming on inmates, as well as criminal responsibility evaluations.

The final witness for the Defense was Shawna Laffitte, the Health Information Management Specialist at Sheridan Memorial Hospital.

AT&T announced this week that it will be expanding service to Wyoming sooner than expected. Phone customers that are currently served by Alltel will be switched to AT&T, due to AT&T's purchase of Verizon assets this June. Initially, this transition was expected to occur later next year, but now, as AT&T spokeswoman Sandy Goldberg tells us,

There was a summer garden harvest celebration last night at Sagebrush Community Garden in Sheridan. Around sixty locals feasted on toasted corn, crisp cut cucumber, fresh potato fries and other garden and non-garden treats, including elk burgers and shish kabobs. This celebration was following a multiple-garden trolley tour of several of the local community gardens.