District court roundup: Man sent to prison for July stabbing

Jan. 8—CHEYENNE — A man convicted of stabbing another man in July recently received prison time for the offense.

Robert Requejo Jr. was sentenced Dec. 30 by Laramie County District Judge Peter Froelicher to six to eight years of incarceration, with credit for 160 days served in the Laramie County jail.

Requejo Jr. had pleaded no contest to felony aggravated assault and battery, bodily injury with a weapon, as part of a plea agreement. Three additional felony counts of aggravated assault and battery, bodily injury with a weapon, and a habitual criminal charge were dismissed by the state at sentencing, per the agreement.

At 9:38 a.m.July 24, a Cheyenne police officer responded to a report of a stabbing in the 1600 block of Snyder Avenue. The officer contacted a man pacing frantically around a parking lot with a blood-soaked shirt and holding the right upper part of his body, according to court documents. It was found the man had a puncture wound in that area indicative of being stabbed.

Officers then located Robert Requejo Jr., who was implicated as the stabbing suspect by several witnesses, according to court documents. One witness said the two men were physically fighting when Requejo Jr. stabbed the other man and ran into a nearby building. Another said she was in the building Requejo Jr. ran into, and that he said he'd just stabbed someone and wanted the knife to be placed somewhere. The knife was later found outside that building.

A third witness said the victim had said "Uncle Robert" stabbed him. When asked by officers on the scene who stabbed him, the victim said "Robert Requejo Jr."

An examination at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center seemed to show the victim had been stabbed four times, according to court documents.

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Heard Jan. 3 in district court:

Robert Logan Noble was sentenced to five to nine years in prison by Laramie County District Judge Steven Sharpe, with 465 days of credit for time served in the Laramie County jail. Accused of breaking into his ex-partner's home and causing thousands of dollars in damage, he pleaded no contest in July to felony property destruction as part of a plea agreement.

Noble was also ordered to pay $9,871.62 in restitution to the victim in the case.

Sharpe said Noble's extensive criminal history and his potential threat to the community justified a slightly higher sentence than the four to six years suggested in the plea agreement.

Additional charges of felony burglary, felony third-degree arson, misdemeanor property destruction and interfering with a police officer (resisting) were dismissed at sentencing, per the agreement, along with charges of felony strangulation of a household member and misdemeanor property destruction in a separate case.

During Noble's sentencing hearing, the victim in the case gave an emotional statement describing the harm Noble had done to her and to their son.

"He acted upon promises to destroy me and my life if he wasn't allowed to be a part of it," the woman said. "He took my serenity, he took my sanctuary. He forever shattered my peace."

"The plea deal that he was given was not the plea deal that was brought to me. I feel wronged by that," the woman continued. "This man tried to kill me, he tried to kill my son. Four to six years is a drop in the bucket for a man who's already done time in the state of Wyoming. ... I can replace items — I can't replace what he's taken from me. I can't replace everything — all of the time and the agony and the loss of sleep, and my son waking up in the middle of the night screaming after this happened because he was afraid (of) every noise he heard."

Speaking on his own behalf during the hearing, Noble acknowledged that what he did was wrong and asked for a chance to go to prison to try and better himself.

On Oct. 5, a Cheyenne police officer responded to a reported burglary and arson. An investigation showed that, sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., Noble cut through a window screen and entered the home of his ex-partner and the mother of his child, according to court documents. Noble then spread paint throughout the house and broke several items, with damage then estimated at around $1,300.

Before leaving, Noble placed two laptop computers, each worth around $750, in the kitchen oven and turned it on, destroying both computers. He then flattened both driver's side tires on the woman's car, each worth about $100.

Noble was contacted around 4 p.m.Oct. 6 by Laramie County Sheriff's deputies and later arrested by a Cheyenne Police officer, according to court documents. When told to stand up and turn, Noble tried to force his way past deputies and was "rigidly resistant" while deputies tried to handcuff him. Noble also made several threats to officers and attempted to free himself several times throughout the arrest, and he was eventually placed in a WRAP restraint before being transported to the Laramie County jail.

Noble had previously been charged with strangulation of a household member, a felony, and misdemeanor property destruction. Around 12:51 a.m.June 11, a Cheyenne police officer responded to a call from Noble's ex-partner that the two had been in a physical fight in which Noble grabbed her throat and squeezed for a "couple seconds," according to court documents. The woman said she had not been able to breathe and had difficulty swallowing, but she had not lost consciousness. She said Noble head-butted the screen door on his way out, causing an estimated $100 in damage.

The officer reported the woman's voice sounded hoarse and that she had a mark the size of a thumb on her neck. When reached by the officer, Noble said he "did not lay a hand on" the woman and had not damaged the screen door.

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Heard Jan. 5 in district court:

Percy James O'Connor was sentenced to a maximum of five years of supervised probation by Laramie County District Judge Catherine Rogers, with a suspended sentence of five to seven years in prison. O'Connor pleaded guilty in May to six felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child (possessing child pornography).

Rogers said her decision was based on O'Connor's complete lack of criminal record before these charges, on his life circumstances and his apparent desire to get help. The judge said O'Connor had been a victim of repeated sexual abuse from a very young age, had had significant mental health issues throughout his life and currently had little to no support from family or friends.

"It would appear there's no question that in many instances, if nothing else, because of the duration of the treatment three to five years, community based sex offender treatment is likely much more effective and supportive of these offenders, and to me, to the court, the prospect of imposing a long term of incarceration on Mr. O'Connor ... likely will make things worse," Rogers said.

O'Connor spent close to two years in jail while awaiting sentencing.

Manlove strongly disagreed with the court's sentence, giving this statement to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle by email after O'Connor's hearing:

"Percy O'Conner should not be on community supervision because he belongs in prison. He is a man who admitted to law enforcement that he was sexually aroused by watching child pornography and he was most attracted to images of 7 to 10 year old girls being sexually abused. He admitted to using those horrible images to masturbate. Yet the court found that the best way to ensure community safety was to place him on probation here in our community? That does not make any sense.

"Probation is not a proper punishment for a man who had 134 sexually explicit images of children, some as young as toddlers, being sexually abused," the District Attorney continued. "Probation is not a proper deterrent for the crime of using images of children being sexually abused for personal gratification. This probationary sentence was a failure by the court to ensure the community's safety and protect our children."

On Jan. 20, 2020, a man reported to the Laramie County Sheriff's Office that he had seen child pornography on his roommate's computer. When deputies asked the roommate, O'Connor, about it, he admitted the images were on his computer and agreed to be interviewed by a detective, according to court documents.

O'Connor told detectives he'd been browsing a website around August 2019 when he noticed what he believed to be child sexual abuse images. He then downloaded about 10 images of children he estimated to be 7 to 10 years old.

He said he'd initially planned to report the website to authorities, but after he downloaded the images, he found he was sexually aroused by them, according to court documents. He never turned the images over to authorities. Over the next four or five months, O'Connor downloaded about 50 additional child sexual abuse images, with a preference for girls 7 to 10 years old, he

O'Connor told detectives he thought he'd eventually be caught, knew downloading child pornography was wrong and hoped to get help.

Detectives found about 150 images that were a mix of real and computer-generated depictions of children, along with a few videos, according to court documents.

Hannah Black is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's criminal justice reporter. She can be reached at hblack@wyomingnews.com or 307-633-3128. Follow her on Twitter at @hannahcblack.

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