Crash kills two, injures others

BYRON - Two people have been killed in a head-on collision in Big Horn County.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol reported that 38-year-old Joel R. Pennington of Byron and 44-year-old Lori B. Rowland of Cody died from their injuries in the Monday crash.

The patrol said Rowland was driving a 2004 Dodge Intrepid eastbound on U.S. Highway 14-A when she crossed the center line and hit a 1998 Dodge van that Pennington was driving westbound. The accident happened five miles west of Byron.

Rowland was pronounced dead at the scene, and Pennington was pronounced dead later at a hospital in Billings, Mont.

Three girls between the ages of 9 and 14 were in Rowland's car. Two remained hospitalized on Tuesday, while the third was treated and released.

Two other girls, ages 6 and 9, were passenger's in Pennington's van. They were treated at a hospital in Lovell and released.

Man gets probation for killing dog

CHEYENNE - A judge has sentenced a man to serve two years probation and perform 200 hours of community service at a local animal shelter for stabbing a dog to death last year.

District Judge Peter Arnold on Monday told 23-year-old Thomas R. Shockley that it wasn't worth the $50,000 a year it would cost to send him to prison.

Shockley had faced up to two years in prison on a charge of felony animal cruelty. He was charged with killing a 6-month-old German shepherd-pit bull mix in Cheyenne last November.

Shockley's lawyer, Bob Rose, told the judge that probation was the right penalty for his client.

The lawyer says Shockley was intoxicated at the time. He says Shockley killed the dog because he thought it was a threat to a friend's children.

Man drives wrong way on interstate

BILLINGS, Mont. - A 21-year-old Wyoming man accused of driving more than 20 miles in the wrong lanes of Interstate 94 east of Billings has been charged with criminal endangerment and drunken driving.

Justin L. Garretson of Worland was arraigned Monday, and his bail was set at $10,000.

Court records say Garretson was arrested Sunday afternoon after two motorists reported a vehicle traveling west in the eastbound lanes of I-94.

Court records say Garretson told a deputy he was traveling to Billings when he noticed that nothing looked familiar and he turned around. Prosecutors say Garretson's blood alcohol level was 0.171, more than twice the limit at which a person is considered legally drunk.

Old grenade causes a scare

CODY - A police bomb disposal team removed a Korean War-era grenade that was found behind a stove in a Park County house that recently changed owners.

The grenade turned out to be a war souvenir that had been converted into a paperweight.

But Park County Undersheriff Tom Ehlers said police didn't know that at the time and treated it like a bomb when the new home owners found it while cleaning the house.