SUBLETTE COUNTY – Thirteen jurors were sworn in July 17, seated and cautioned by the trial judge to their heavy burden of “absolute impartiality” to determine through testimony and evidence – mainly videos – if a “cowboy fight” was self-defense or an unprovoked attack on another man.

Chett L. Whitman is charged with felony aggravated assault and battery against Christopher Meeks, both cowboys and both from longtime local ranch families. On July 9, 2022, Whitman followed Meeks and Whitman’s then-girlfriend Misty Jones – Meeks’ ex-girlfriend – outside the Cowboy Bar.

No one there during the wild 24-hour bar party, traditional during the annual Green River Rendezvous, actually saw the first punch. Whitman struck Meeks three times, the last two seen by friends as Meeks lay unconscious on a concrete sidewalk, witnesses testified.

Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich gave his opening statement after the jury was selected from a panel of 70, some who were excused fairly quickly for lack of childcare or medical reasons, mainly.

They had been closely questioned that morning by 9^th District Court Judge Kate McKay, Melinkovich and Whitman’s defense attorney David McCarthy, of Saratoga.

McCarthy asked potential jurors many questions about violence, self-defense and stalking, laying out his defense line that Meeks swung at Whitman first outside the Cowboy Bar at midnight on July 9, 2022. He built up an image of Chris Meeks as threatening Whitman for his new relationship with Misty Jones.

Jones was previously in an 8-year relationship with Meeks before she started going out with Whitman.

The seated jury includes seven women and six men, including one alternate.

Melinkovich opened by saying, “Chett Whitman made his way past two people to get to Chris Meeks. You will likely not hear from witnesses about the first strike.”

Meeks testified on the first day, relating his deep feelings for Jones and her family. Their relationship became strained and a friend told him Jones was hanging out with both him and Whitman.

“She denied it adamantly,” he said. Later that night he walked to her house, opened the door and went in to find Whitman and Jones asleep. He said he shook her shoulder and said, “It’s not happening, huh?”

He remembered Jones saying she wanted to talk to him and going outside; then he work up at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center after a life-flight early on July 10, 2022.

Meeks was unconscious when Whitman and Jones left the bar very shortly after the three went outside, gathering their horses and trailers from the Pinedale Rodeo Grounds after midnight, Jones later testified.

She testified she told Deputy Dan Ruby that Meeks threw the first punch and “Chris deserved what he got” because she had no idea Meeks was so seriously injured.

Jones is seen in security videos approaching Meeks, taking his collar and talking, then following him outside. A minute later, Whitman walked through the bar and outside behind them.

Jones testified that Whitman had come through the bar’s back door to where she and Meeks were standing and “he went over the top if me” to punch Meeks first; she was knocked to the side.

Grainy security-camera videos entered by Deputy Josh Peterson and later Detective Sgt. Lance Gehlhausen showed Whitman, Meeks, Jones and several other people moving around, coming and going, who would later testify against Whitman. They painted a picture of a celebratory Rendezvous bar crowd with some tension after cowboys, not including Meeks, apparently knocked Whitman’s drink from his hand and told him and Jones to leave.

Callie Whinnery testified that Jones came up to Meeks and told him, “You need to call your dogs off.” The two went outside at 11:59 a.m. and Whinnery and Whitman behind her at 12:01 a.m. She heard Jones tell him, “Knock it off.” She saw Whitman hit Meeks three times, she said, twice with his head on the concrete.

Tess Soll also testified that she and her husband Colter went outside and having medical training, she assessed his condition. She said Whitman yelled, “I just knocked Chris Meeks the f– out.” Soll saw blood coming from the unconscious man’s nose and ears and turned him on his side “to prevent him from suffocating on his own blood.”

At 12:01 a.m., the video shows several people running to the back door. Jones and Whitman walked back through the bar at 12:06 a.m.

Off-duty EMTs immediately left the bar to call ahead, begin treatment and take him to the Pinedale Clinic.

Other clinic witnesses in the trial’s first two days testified to Meeks’ severely fractured orbital sockets and cheekbone.

Defense

McCarthy asked prosecution witnesses in redirect if they saw the fight, or know who had swung first; some did not. The video cameras, three at the Cowboy Bar and one at Los Cabos, had blind spots, he pointed out.

“That camera did not show the fight?” he asked Gehlhausen.

“It did not,” he said. Gehlhausen testified confirming that Whitman did not jump on an unconscious, hit him with a bottle or use a tire iron in the fight.

McCarthy asked about a text found on Whitman’s phone when searched: “We threw at the same time but I blocked his punch.” Gehlhausen had not brought the phone or text to court.

At the end of the second day, Judge McKay announced that Whitman would testify on his own behalf. Melinkovich questioned whether defense witnesses Carie James, Whitman’s mother, and Rilee Whitman, his sister, should be allowed to testify because at least one had listened to Meeks’ testimony earlier via the Wyoming Supreme Court live-stream. His sister was withdrawn as a Wednesday witness; James took the stand.

She said Meeks sent her a text at 2:30 a.m. on June 30 threatening her son and she told him about it but wouldn’t let him see the text. She said she was aware of other threats against him – “It was the main topic at the Daniel (Green River) Bar.”

James said she wanted to protect her son and Meeks from fighting “without escalating and making (Chett) mad; fighting was not going to solve anything.”

Melinkovich handed her a selfie photo of Jones and Whitman, displaying his middle finger. It was sent with Meeks’ text to James warning her to tell her son “to be very careful, he doesn’t realize who he’s f-ing with.”

McCarthy displayed the photo, text and James’ response to Meeks, which she said was “searching for a way to protect my son, to not get involved, not get anyone hurt.” She said she felt Jones was “manipulating” her son and might get him hurt.

After James, neighbor Jana Hughes testified to seeing Meeks at Jones’ new place and eventually became frustrated with her good friend after talking to a deputy about Meeks and doing nothing. “I’m frustrated with this entire situation,” Hughes said. “It’s been really hard. For everybody involved. In this room.”

The last defense witness was Bryon Lozier, who said Meeks seemed fairly quiet at the bar. Friends with Whitman, they had drinks and talked with others. At the end of the bar, Jones came up to Meeks and said, “'Chris, you need to get out of the bar.’ He just stood there and smiled, shook his head.”

Wednesday, July 19, at 11:39 a.m., Judge McKay excused the jury for lunch, to return at 1 p.m. for the final witness, Chett Whitman. After both attorneys present closing arguments, the judge will give jury instructions and they will begin deliberations.

A livestream of audio from the courtroom may be accessed online https://www.courts.state.wy.us/live-broadcast/.