Josh Barta
jbarta@uwyo.edu
A Laramie man found guilty of conspiring to murder a Cheyenne resident with a pipe bomb has put in a request for a new trial.
In May a jury convicted Ryan Alexander Brown, 40, of conspiracy to commit murder in the first-degree. The penalty for conspiracy to commit murder in the first-degree ranges from life in prison to life in prison with no parole.
Reports say the target of the bombing was a Cheyenne man whom Brown believed to be having an affair with his wife.
Prosecuting attorney Kurt Britzius argued Brown fulfilled the elements of the conspiracy charge by agreeing with two other people to kill a third party “with malice.” He described the relationship between Brown and Brown’s wife as a “rocky” and “turbulent” marriage and painted Brown as an obsessive spouse who became increasingly jealous of a man with whom he thought his wife was having an affair
Brown was not alone in the conspiracy, co-defendants William Ferrill and Eric Farrar were involved as well.
Ferrill and Farrar initially received charges on conspiracy to commit murder in the first-degree, but both settled for plea deals in exchange for their testimonies against Brown.
In July, Ferrill was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, with a suspended sentence of three to five years in prison, and Farrar was sentenced to four to nine years in prison, with 250 days of credit for time served.
The request for a retrial comes from what Brown’s attorneys’ believe is falsified evidence.
During the trial, jurors were shown a video of a pipe bomb detonation. Brown’s attorneys argue this video should not have been admitted due to it being irrelevant and circumstantial.
“The explosion video did not tend to prove or disprove any fact at issue,” Brown’s attorneys said.
