The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office had a busy week, headlined by two arrests.
According to Dick Blust, public information officer for the sheriff’s office, the sheriff’s office helped arrest an armed fugitive Friday afternoon in Rock Springs.
Jerry Joseph Romero, 41, of Salt Lake City, was arrested for an alleged probation violation on an original charge of felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, after he was tracked to a residence at Gateway Village in Rock Springs. A release Blust sent out states Det. Matt Wharton found Romero hiding in the residence’s backyard, attempting to jump over a fence. As detectives and agents from the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation chased him, the release states Romero attempted to draw a Taurus Judge shotgun revolver from a holster on his right hip, but struggled with the holster’s release mechanism.
Sgts. Joe Tomich and Rich Fischer, along with Deputy Sheriff Amanda Buller, took Romero to the ground, where the sheriff’s office claims he continued to violently resist attempts to arrest him and continued to try drawing his gun. A Taser was used on Romero and he was disarmed and arrested.
In a hat Romero wore at the time of his arrest, detectives found 26 grams of methamphetamine and it was determined the residence he was at contained three small children.
The sheriff’s office reports Romero was charged with attempted aggravated assault, habitual criminal convicted of three or more offenses; attempted use of a firearm while committing a felony; possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent; wearing or carrying a concealed weapon; felony possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine; possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute; child endangerment with methamphetamine; and interference with a peace officer.
According to the sheriff’s office, his previous criminal convictions in Utah include a 1998 felony evidence tampering in Salt Lake City District Court and was sentenced to 0-5 years. He was also convicted of a weapons offense in United States District Court in 2005, where he was sentenced to 24 months, plus three years supervised release. He was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in Third District Court in Salt Lake City, being sentenced to 38 months in 2013. Romero was convicted of receiving a stolen vehicle and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, both in Salt Lake City, in 2016.
On Feb. 7, the sheriff’s office released information regarding an arrest made on a Washington resident Jan. 20. According to the sheriff’s office, the FBI took custody of David Peter Vier, 63, at the Sweetwater County Detention Center.
He was charged in United States District Court in Cheyenne with transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, which carries with it a prison sentence of not less than 10 years or for life.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies were dispatched to Little America Jan. 20, in response to two girls, aged 12 and 14, hiding from a man in a blue pickup truck. Upon meeting up with the girls, the deputies were told the two had met Vier in Washington and said he drove them to Wyoming. The girls alleged he pressed them for sexual contact along the way.
According to court documents cited by the sheriff’s office, Vier allegedly told the girls that when they got to the hotel, he would have sex with them.
The girls decided to run from him when they reached Little America, fearing they would be sexually assaulted. When they escaped, they took his cell phone and used it to call for help.
Detectives searched Vier’s truck and found a variety of restraints, including handcuffs, tape, rope and mouth gags.
They also found a vial of Etomidate, a prescription tranquilizer the media release states is used for tracheal intubation procedures and a vial of intravenous diphenhydramine, commonly known as Benadryl.
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