Wyoming Supreme Court upholds conviction of Cheyenne sex offender

Sept. 02--CHEYENNE -- The Wyoming Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction of a Cheyenne man sentenced to prison in 2016 for sexually abusing a young girl.

Jeremy Nunamaker was convicted by a jury of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor after a jury trial in February 2016.

Laramie County District Judge Catherine Rogers sentenced Nunamaker to 25-30 years in prison, followed by 40 years of probation, in May 2016.

Nunamaker's attorney, public defender Eric Alden, argued in an appeal to the state's high court that the instructions given to the jury didn't describe an act consistent with the legal definition of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, and therefore those two convictions should be overturned.

And while the court agreed that the jury instructions were incorrect, justices determined the instructions didn't prejudice the jury or change the outcome.

At the time, public defender Melody Anchietta argued that the description of the alleged acts in the jury instructions needed to be more specific.

The judge and prosecution agreed, and the parties chose to insert language from the charging documents into the jury instructions for determining whether Nunamaker committed second-degree sexual abuse.

All of the parties also agreed to insert that same language into the first-degree sexual abuse charges, which is where the issue began.

Alden argued on appeal that the specific incident inserted into the instructions for both crimes didn't fit in the definition of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

But the Supreme Court found that while the instructions were incorrect, they actually made it harder for the state to make its case.

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