A Texas man recently received five to seven years in prison for his role in a string of auto burglaries in Cody.

Gabriel T. Sepeda, 27, pleaded no contest to felony counts of aggravated burglary and burglary at a hearing last month. Aggravated burglary applies when a person is armed or becomes armed during a burglary, and it carries a minimum of five years of prison time.

The case against Sepeda was tied to a night in June 2023, when at least nine vehicles were burglarized in Cody. Items were stolen from six of the vehicles and one — a 2011 Dodge pickup — was stolen and taken for a half-mile joyride.

Sepeda and his brother, 21-year-old Zachary Sepeda, were primarily identified as suspects because of trouble they ran into days after the burglaries. Charging documents say that in July 2023, police in Lubbock, Texas, responded to a report of gunshots and found the Sepeda brothers and two firearms that had been stolen from an unlocked truck in Cody. 

Combined with surveillance camera footage and cellphone data indicating that the brothers had been in the area at the time of the burglaries, Cody police obtained warrants for the Sepedas’ arrests in January.

Gabriel Sepeda was later extradited to Wyoming and his bail set at $50,000 cash.

A preliminary hearing was held in June, and Sepeda’s court-appointed attorney, Sarah Miles, said the evidence presented against her client was “tenuous.” Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darah lowered Sepeda’s bond to $50,000 cash or surety, but he remained unable to post bail.

At a June arraignment in District Court, Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Eichele said Sepeda was already a convicted felon and called the Alice, Texas, resident “clearly a flight risk” given his lack of ties to the area.

“He came here presumably on a criminal enterprise with his brother, who is still outstanding,” Eichele had said in June.

A couple months later, Miles moved to have Sepeda released on a signature bond, but the plea deal was struck before a bond hearing was held. The agreement involved the county attorney’s office dropping two felony counts of theft and property destruction.

As part of the Oct. 3 sentence imposed by District Court Judge Bill Simpson, Sepeda was also ordered to pay $200 to the court and $3,200 in restitution. He’s currently serving his prison time at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington.

As for Zachary Sepeda, he remains jailed in Lubbock County, Texas, where he’s facing multiple felony charges. The younger Sepeda will likely need to wrap up those cases in Texas before answering to his four pending felony charges in Park County.