All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
(Lander, WY) – The preliminary hearings for Lorenzo Hopper and Amanda Phillips were held last week on Thursday, April 30, in Lander’s Circuit Court, where probable cause was established for the charges they face, and their cases are now bound to District Court.
The hearing was overseen by the Honorable Judge Jefferson Coombs, with Micah Wyatt representing the State, Zachary Mahlum representing Phillips, and Clay Simpson representing Hopper.
As of this writing, an arraignment date has yet to be scheduled.
Phillips and Hopper were the two subjects arrested on April 21 in connection with a series of break-ins that occurred in Lander, and ultimately ended with a clerk being stabbed at a gas station located on the 100 block of Main Street.
According to the affidavit filed last week, at approximately 3:40 AM on April 21, a Lander Police Department officer was dispatched to the Loaf N’ Jug gas station on Main Street for a report of a male subject who had jumped over the counter and stolen a bottle of alcohol without paying, before leaving westbound from the store.
The officer contacted the store clerk, who provided a description of the male, later determined to be Hopper, and advised that she did not know if he had left in a vehicle or on foot. The area was searched, but law enforcement did not locate a subject at that time.
At approximately 4:37 AM, the same officer was dispatched back to Loaf N’ Jug for a report that a subject was fighting with the clerk, court documents state, with the clerk advising it was the same suspect from before. While en route, dispatch advised the officer that the clerk had been stabbed three to four times during the altercation.
Officers soon arrived on scene and observed a red passenger vehicle (which had been parked just south of the gas station in the 100 block of North 2nd Street, facing northbound) make a U-turn and leave the area. One of the officers initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle, which “quickly accelerated, failed to stop immediately, and proceeded one block before pulling over at 3rd & Garfield Street.”
An officer contacted the occupants of the vehicle, including a female driver, later identified as Phillips, a male front-seat passenger (Hopper), and a female back-seat passenger.
Hopper was ordered out of the vehicle and placed in handcuffs, at which point officers further observed a red substance on his pants, “consistent with blood.” He was then placed in the back seat of the officer’s patrol vehicle and later transported to the Fremont County Detention Center.
Phillips was also ordered out of the vehicle, secured, and transported to the Detention Center. The female sitting in the back seat was “non-responsive, smelled strongly of alcohol, and was drooling,” according to the affidavit, and EMS was ultimately summoned to provide medical care due to officers being “concerned for her well-being.”
LPD officers completed a standard inventory of the vehicle, and noted that it contained “computer screens, oxygen bottles, an oxygen mask, and plumbing equipment.” The vehicle was then sealed and impounded at the Fremont County Impound Lot, while investigators awaited the authorization of a search warrant.
An LPD detective then contacted the clerk who had been stabbed while she was being cared for at the Lander hospital. The clerk told the detective that after seeing Hopper return to the Loaf N’ Jug following the theft, she called 911 and followed him out of the store as he walked away, the affidavit continues.
The clerk said that at this point, Hopper turned around and started coming towards her while “denying the previous theft,” before shoving her and producing an “estimated 6-inch blade hunting style knife.”
The clerk recounted that Hopper did not verbally threaten her, but “started stabbing at her,” prompting her to attempt to defend herself by “grabbing at the knife with her left hand while she still had the phone in her right hand.”
Hopper then grabbed her left hand and cut her right hand, the clerk stated, and after this, stabbed her three times in her back as she attempted to pull away, but he would “not let go.”
The detective noted in the affidavit that the clerk’s bandages were removed, and he observed the wounds to her back, which were “distinct penetrating injuries that caused significant trauma consistent with that of a repeated knife assault, as well as the injuries to her hands, (which) were consistent with that of defensive wounds from a knife assault.”
The clerk stated that after she was stabbed, she fell, but it was unknown if Hopper “pushed her down or if she fell on her own.” Due to the severity of the injuries that the clerk suffered during the attack, she was ultimately life-flighted for further treatment.
During the ensuing investigation, several businesses reported they had been broken into and vandalized overnight immediately preceding the stabbing incident, and that various items were stolen.
(Note: The affidavit did not detail the extent of the reported damages done to the other businesses.)
Among those businesses was the County 10 radio station office, located in the 1500 block of Main Street, where an oxygen bottle was used to smash the front door window, and Hopper was observed on video surveillance entering the office. One of the items reported missing from the office was a ‘One Shot Antelope Hunt’ commemorative Gerber knife, the sheath of which was left behind in the office.
Later that afternoon, the vehicle was searched after the warrant was obtained, and investigators located items inside “that matched the items stolen from the aforementioned burglarized businesses,” including the commemorative knife that was “stuffed under the front-passenger seat where Hopper was seated when pulled over…”
The knife had a “red substance consistent with blood on both sides of the blade,” officers noted in the affidavit.
Detectives later conducted an interview with Hopper at the detention center, where he stated that he did “recall stealing multiple items from the businesses” and that he did “remember breaking windows and entering and exiting buildings,” but did “not exactly remember which buildings (were) which,” because he was “intoxicated.”
Hopper also informed detectives that he did “recall putting the knife in his right pants pocket,” the affidavit continues, and that he did pull it out at the Loaf N’ Jug when he was approached by the clerk.
Hopper recalled that the clerk was “holding onto him,” and that he “proceeded to stab the clerk on her back.”
Hopper then stated that he ran away from the scene and told the driver, Phillips, to “get out of here fast.” Hopper added that he placed the knife under the passenger seat where he was sitting.
Detectives soon interviewed Phillips, who admitted to driving Hopper to “multiple locations early in that morning,” but claimed that she was “using her phone and did not see what was done by Hopper at those locations.”
She added that “at the Loaf N’ Jug, she saw a woman frantically waving her arms, and Hopper return to the vehicle and tell her to ‘get out of here,'” before she “quickly left the scene.”
“Based on her location in the vehicle, detectives believe that she would have also observed Hopper place the bloody knife under the seat after he returned to the vehicle,” the affidavit states.
Detectives later reviewed the video footage from Loaf N’ Jug, which “showed where Hopper did commit the theft of alcohol by jumping over the counter and stealing the bottle.” The video footage also showed that when Hopper returned, the clerk denied him entry to the store.
The last portion of the video from the gas station shows the clerk leaving the store with a phone in her hand, following Hopper as he heads towards the alleyway.
Video footage obtained from a business across the street, where the west side of the Loaf N’ Jug was visible, showed the clerk following Hopper, at which point a “physical altercation occur(red) between the two near the light pole as described,” the affidavit states.
“I could see where a witness then chased Hopper away down the street,” investigators noted in the affidavit. “Right after this, a vehicle performs a U-turn where law enforcement then intercepts and performs the traffic stop as reported…”
Phillips was ultimately charged with one count of accessory before the fact to burglary, one count of accessory after the fact to aggravated assault, and one count of fleeing or attempting to elude.
For Hopper’s reported role, he now faces six charges total, including: attempted first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, two counts of aggravated assault and battery, interference with a peace officer, and theft (taking).
As stated above, probable cause was found at the April 30 preliminary hearing to bind the cases to the District Court, and no arraignment date has been set at this time.
The maximum punishment for a felony accessory before the fact to burglary charge is 25 years imprisonment (no less than 5), and a $50,000 fine.
The maximum punishment for a felony accessory after the fact to aggravated assault charge is three years imprisonment and a $3,000 fine.
The maximum punishment for a misdemeanor fleeing or attempting to elude charge is six months imprisonment and a $750 fine.
The maximum punishment for a felony attempted first-degree murder charge is life imprisonment (possibly without parole).
The maximum punishment for a felony aggravated assault and battery charge is ten years imprisonment.
The maximum punishment for a misdemeanor theft (taking) charge is 6 months imprisonment and a $750 fine.
The maximum punishment for a felony aggravated burglary charge is 25 years imprisonment (no less than 5 years), and a $50,000 fine.
The maximum punishment for a misdemeanor interference with a peace officer charge is one year imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.
County 10 will provide updates for both parties as their cases progress, which can be viewed here.