Pretrial Conference Held in District Court for Man Charged With Distributing Methamphetamine

One of the first in-person criminal hearings in Fourth Judicial District Court in Sheridan since mid March when the pandemic began was held Tuesday for a man that is scheduled to go to trial next month for allegedly distributing methamphetamine in the Sheridan area. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

Last August, following an investigation by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Wyoming Highway Patrol and local law enforcement, Brandon Hanni was arrested and charged with one count of delivery of a controlled substance- methamphetamine, and one count of conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance- methamphetamine. Hanni’s case was scheduled for trial in March of this year, but was delayed due to the pandemic. Late last month, Fourth Judicial District Court Judge John Fenn scheduled Hanni’s three-day jury trial to begin on Monday, August 10.

On Tuesday, an in-person pretrial conference was held to discuss the tentative plan to safely hold a jury trial amid the pandemic. Judge Fenn said that 50 prospective jurors will be summoned to appear on August 10 for the jury selection process. The prospective jurors will be broken up into two groups of 25, with each group being in the courtroom for the voir dire process. There will be a seating chart for the prospective jurors to ensure social distancing guidelines are being followed.

The jury pool will be pre-screened for any symptoms of COVID-19 before entering the courtroom, and temperature checks will be done daily during the trial. Judge Fenn said that aside from those seated at the tables where the prosecution and the defendant will be seated, everyone will be required to wear a face covering during the trial.

Legal counsel and the defendant can choose to wear a facemask while not speaking if they wish. Judge Fenn said that he intends to wear a mask during the trial and will remove it when he needs to speak during the trial proceedings. Also from Tuesday’s pretrial conference, Judge Fenn did not rule, but did take under advisement, a request made by Sheridan County Deputy Attorney and Prosecuting Attorney for the State Christina White, to have a witness from the State Crime Lab testify by video conference instead of in-person.

White said that the witness is scheduled to testify at a trial in Evanston at the same time as the trial in Sheridan, and that the witness was subpoenaed by the prosecutor in Uinta County before she subpoenaed the witness. Judge Fenn said that a ruling on the request would come at a later time.  If convicted Hanni faces up to 40 years in prison and fines of up to $50,000.