Paul Farley at a preliminary hearing 7/28/22 (Gregory Hirst, Oil City News)
CASPER, Wyo. — A Cheyenne resident pleaded guilty to auto burglary and joyriding in Natrona County District Court on Wednesday.
The latter charge, formally known as unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, was reduced from felony auto theft after his attorney argued his client had never intended to keep the stolen Volkswagen Jetta or permanently deprive the owner of its use.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors will seek no more than four years’ imprisonment on the felony charge.
His $25,000 cash or surety bond was reduced to $5,000 cash or surety on Wednesday.
Police say Paul Farley, 33, drove to the U-Haul on Bryan Stock Trail in Casper on the morning of July 20 in a Jetta stolen two days prior, according to an affidavit filed.
An employee at the business was informed by a co-worker that there was someone in the parking lot in her GMC SUV. The woman told police she went out and encountered Farley attempting to manipulate the ignition of her vehicle with what appeared to her to be a pair of scissors.
The woman said Farley told her he was attempting to start his mother’s vehicle, the affidavit says. After informing him that the vehicle was hers, she called the police.
Responding officers saw Farley crouched behind the stolen Jetta and arrested him after a brief foot chase.
The GMC owner identified the $10 sunglasses Farley was wearing as her own.
While inspecting the VW Farley drove up in, officers found the “3” on the license plate had been altered with a black marker to look like an “8”. Police then identified the vehicle as having been reported stolen two days earlier.
That complainant identified the VW as his own, though Farley had apparently removed his Seattle Seahawks and Van Halen stickers.
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