CASPER, Wyo. — A Mills man faces up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to going to his cousin’s house in a drunken rage, smashing out his truck windows, and grabbing a kitchen knife from him.
Alexander Paul Cochran, 27, initially told the circuit court judge after his arrest in February that he had not used a knife and that it had been “a clean fight.”
When District Court Judge Catherine Wilking asked him on Thursday if he had threatened to use a knife, Cochran replied, “Yes, ma’am.
Cochran pleaded cold on all counts with an agreement for concurrency, which means he could face up to ten years in prison. The state also agreed not to pursue habitual offender enhancements.
He pleaded guilty to unlawful entry into an occupied structure to commit battery, misdemeanor battery, misdemeanor possession of cocaine, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, property destruction.
“As I understand it, there was some damage to a vehicle,” Wilking informed me.
“I smashed all the windows out,” Cochran explained.
According to a Mills Police Department affidavit, a woman called police around 2:18 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 17, to report that Cochran, her husband’s cousin, had arrived attempting to fight people and threatened to “shoot up” the house. Two minutes later, the officer stopped a white truck driving away from the scene.
The officer noted that Cochran, the passenger, appeared heavily intoxicated and had blood coming from one earlobe, which lacked the silver gauge earring that matched the one in his other ear, according to the report.
According to the affidavit, while police were investigating the scene, Cochran allegedly kept calling the woman and threatening to shoot her and officers.
He was eventually forced out of the vehicle, and officers discovered the cocaine while making the arrest.
The man in the house claimed he and his family were at home when Cochran began calling and texting that he was going to “beat his ass” and “shoot up the house.” He claimed that while he was outside, he heard a diesel truck approach the house and a window shatter.
He claimed that Cochran was already inside the house when he returned, and that Cochran approached him and struck him in the side of the face.
The husband claimed he put Cochran in a headlock and overpowered him before letting him go. By then, Cochran and his companions had gained unauthorised access to the house.
The man said: Cochran then took a knife from the block on the kitchen counter, pointed it at him, and said, “I’m gonna get you,” according to the affidavit.
He stated that Cochran then threw the knife in the sink and went outside. At this point, the man stated that he had gathered his family and prepared to leave.
Police discovered two steak knives in the sink and an earring that matched Cochran’s on the kitchen floor. The front wooden fence was broken in places, and the truck’s windows were smashed. The smashed front window had a block of concrete on it.
The wife told the police. Cochran grabbed a second knife from the block and threatened her husband. One of the people Cochran arrived with convinced him to drop the knife and dragged him out of the house.
The man’s wife told police that Cochran and her husband were cousins and had a good relationship. She told police that Cochran used to date her friend, and that the lap dance this female friend had given her earlier in the night ended up on Snapchat, prompting Cochran’s irate and threatening messages, as well as his threat to come over.
