Summary 2008 WY 143

Summary of Decision issued December 8, 2008

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: State v. Thomason

Citation: 2008 WY 143

Docket Number: S-08-0056

Appeal from the District Court of Laramie County, the Honorable Edward L. Grant, Judge.

Representing Appellant State: Bruce A. Salzburg, Attorney General; Terry L. Armitage, Deputy Attorney General; David L. Delicath, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

Representing Appellee Thomason: Dion J. Custis of Dion J. Custis, PC, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Facts/Discussion: The Division of Criminal Investigation of the Office of the Attorney General (Division) appealed the district court decision to relieve Thomason of his duty to register as a sex offender.

The Court had to determine whether Thomason’s crime fell within subsection (g), permitting termination of the duty to register after ten years, or subsection (h), which subsection allows termination after twenty-five years. Thomason pled guilty to sexual assault in the fourth degree, Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-305 which was repealed in 1997. The elements of sexual assault in the fourth degree are virtually identical to the elements of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-304 (a)(iii), sexual assault in the third degree. Sexual assault in the third degree is one of the offenses enumerated in Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 7-19-301(h) the twenty-five year termination provision of the statute. Therefore the district court erred in ordering Thomason’s registration duty terminated pursuant to the ten-year provision.

Holding: The district court erred when it interpreted the Wyoming Sex Offender Registration Act to relieve Thomason of his duty to register. Further, the record does not show that the Division waived its right to pursue this appeal. The Court reversed the decision of the district court and remanded to the district court for entry of an order consistent herewith.

Reversed and remanded.

C.J. Voigt delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/56wsvh .

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