Gerald Johnston

In December, Gerald L. Johnston accepted a seven- to eight-year state prison sentence for breaking into and burglarizing a vehicle on the South Fork, leading sheriff’s deputies on a hour-long chase into Montana and later damaging his jail cell.

Now, he’s facing the prospect of additional time in federal prison for something else: allegedly stealing mail from multiple residents on the South Fork over two different time periods.

A grand jury convened by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming indicted Johnston in January on five felony counts of possessing stolen mail. Federal prosecutors allege that Johnston unlawfully obtained at least one package in the fall of 2019, then returned to the state and took other packages in March 2021.

The charges are the result of a multi-year investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service that included extensive assistance from the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Scott Steward said it was in the summer of 2019 that numerous pieces of mail were stolen from the South Fork outside of Cody. Pieces of pilfered postage started popping up at various spots in the area, having apparently been discarded by the thief; some of the discarded mail was found near Andy Martin Hill and “a whole bunch” turned up in a trash can at an outhouse at the Twin Creek Trailhead, Steward said.

The sheriff set up his own trail cameras at strategic locations and patrolled the area in his personal truck in an effort to catch the culprit.

“I burned a ton of diesel fuel out of my own pocket, because he had me so pissed off,” Steward said.

The South Fork area was hit hard in 2019 — a map of all the thefts stretches nearly the whole length of the 40-mile road — “then it just all of a sudden one day quit,” the sheriff said.

Authorities didn’t have their man, but they did have some clues. The thief was caught on one of the trail cams and, although the nighttime footage wasn’t clear enough for a license plate, it yielded a general description of the vehicle. More significantly, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service was able to track one of the payment cards that had been stolen out of the mail and obtained a photo of the suspect using it at a store in the Pacific Northwest.

“So we got photos of him the first year; we just didn’t know who it was,” Steward said.

That might have been the end of it, but in the winter of 2021, the mail thefts resumed on the South Fork. Then came a literal break in the case. On March 13, 2021, a group of ice climbers at the Deer Creek Campground reported that someone had smashed out the window of their vehicle and stolen a backpack, including a purse.

As the purse’s owner attempted to cancel her credit cards, she learned that one had been used to make a pair of purchases at the Cody Walmart. The culprit was caught on camera making the $200 worth of purchases and was unmistakable — not only because of his large size, but because of the two German shepherds that accompanied him into the store. Walmart staffers also gleaned the license plate number of his Ford Expedition from their surveillance footage. The vehicle was registered to Johnston, a transient with a long criminal record that includes a sex offense, kidnapping and multiple flights from law enforcement.

Johnston publicly tied himself to the theft when he tried selling the climber’s wallet on an online marketplace called OfferUp.

“Very nice woman’s clutch wallet genuine leather made by coach NY,” Johnston wrote in the listing, asking for $30.

Three days after the burglary, on March 16, Undersheriff Andy Varian spotted the blue Ford on the South Fork Highway and tried to pull it over. Johnston instead led officers on an hour-long chase through Cody toward Ralston into Badger Basin and across the state line. Along the way, he tossed “pieces of stolen property from Park County” out the window, charging documents say.

Johnston was just south of Belfry, Montana, when Carbon County Sheriff’s deputies were able to disable his Ford with spike strips. Johnston crashed into a fence and a tree, then asked officers to shoot him before finally giving up.

When deputies from Wyoming and Montana searched the vehicle, Steward said they found some of the stolen mail.

The federal indictment specifically alleges that Johnston possessed four stolen packages at or shortly before the time of his arrest. The items were reportedly addressed to people in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Arizona and Wisconsin.

As for the stolen package Johnston is alleged to have possessed in September 2019, it was addressed to a fictitious person in Cody, raising the possibility that it had been placed there by law enforcement officials.

Johnston has been jailed since his March 2021 arrest, though that wasn’t the end of his legal trouble.

A couple months into his stay at the Park County Detention Center, Johnston reportedly began a hunger strike and was moved to a medical unit on June 27. However, as detention staff attempted to remove his handcuffs, the 6 foot, 8 inch, 300-pound suspect reportedly began swinging the cuffs around, breaking a window near the cell door and the cuffs themselves. 

Detention Sgt. Michael Warner said he ultimately had to use pepper spray to get Johnston under control and moved to a padded cell.

Prosecutors charged Johnston with a new felony count of property destruction for the $1,660.04 worth of damage he’d done to the window, plus the cuffs, a pair of Crocs and a towel. That count was dismissed as part of his plea deal, but he agreed to be held responsible for the cost, along with $1,792 for the damage and losses from the auto burglary plus $203 for the cost of transporting him back to Park County from Montana. He also owes $275 in court fees and assessments.

Johnston is currently in the custody of the Wyoming Department of Corrections for the South Fork auto burglary and he won’t be eligible for parole until at least late 2025. He made his first appearance on the new federal charges in March, and has pleaded not guilty.

A federal judge ordered Johnston to remain in custody while he awaits a May trial on the mail theft allegations. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly Rankin noted the lengthy period of prison time Johnston faces if he’s convicted on the new charges — up to 25 years — plus his prior criminal history.