By Christina MacIntosh
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — Cody Roberts, the Sublette County man charged with felony animal cruelty for allegedly bringing a wolf into a Daniel bar, plans to take a plea deal.

Under the agreement, reached Wednesday, Roberts will likely face 18 months of probation and a $1,000 fine. He would not be permitted to hunt, fish, drink alcohol or enter bars during that time.

Roberts’ deal is for a suspended sentence, which allows someone who has committed a crime to avoid prison time. If he complies with the conditions, he will not face incarceration. If he violates his probation, he will serve the remainder of the 18 months in prison.

Roberts previously pleaded not guilty in November. After a judge rebuffed his defense attorney’s attempt to dismiss the case, his jury trial was set to begin March 9.

Sublette County Prosecutor Clayton Melinkovich declined to comment. 

Rob Piper, Roberts’ attorney, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Melinkovich and Piper signed the plea document. Judge Richard Lavery, the Sweetwater County District Court judge assigned to the case, still has to approve the deal to make it official. The document does not say when Lavery will consider the plea.

The criminal case follows a February 2024 incident in which Roberts brought a wolf into the Green River Bar in Daniel. The episode — which was documented and disseminated online — provoked international outrage.

At the time, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said that Roberts’ actions were exempt from state animal cruelty law but cited him for illegally possessing wildlife and fined him $250. 

Melinkovich, however, convened a grand jury in August 2025, which indicted Roberts on felony animal cruelty charges. Had he been found guilty, Roberts could have spent at most two years in prison.

Under the deal, filed in Sublette County District Court on Wednesday, Roberts has the option to plead guilty or no contest. He has not done either. The latter would mean that he is accepting punishment without admitting guilt.

The criminal charges — brought by Melinkovich, agreed upon by the grand jury and upheld by the judge in denying the motion to dismiss — upended earlier interpretations of animal cruelty laws in Wyoming in response to the incident.

Following Game and Fish’s initial investigation into the incident, the department said that animal cruelty laws do not apply to predatory animals.

In response to the uproar and seeming ambiguity, the Wyoming Legislature last year passed a law that bans people from knowingly and intentionally causing undue suffering for living wildlife, including predators.

Melinkovich maintained that Wyoming law, even prior to the Legislature’s 2025 updates, protected the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction” of wildlife, but did not provide a blanket license to treat wild animals — including predators — in any manner whatsoever. 

Piper, Roberts’ attorney, argued that was not the case.

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