Defending a Vehicle-Taking Charge After a Domestic Assault

Attorney Answer

Being drunk is not a defense, and I am not going to tell you Wyoming recognizes a "necessity" defense on these facts — I have no Wyoming case in front of me that says so. Your defense starts with the words of the statute and with what the State has to prove.

The offense. Wyo. Stat. sec. 31-11-102 ("Unauthorized use of vehicle; penalty") is the current Wyoming offense matching this fact pattern. It reaches any person who, without specific authority of the owner or the owner's authorized and accredited agent, willfully, wantonly, or maliciously takes possession of, drives, propels, or takes away — or attempts to do so — a vehicle that is the property of another, for the purpose of temporarily making use of the vehicle, or who knowingly aids, abets, or assists another in doing so. It is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, a fine of not more than $1,000, or both.

Two parts of that text do real work for you.

First, the State must prove the taking was willful, wanton, or malicious. Those are mental-state words, and they are not satisfied merely by proving you drove a car that was not yours. What was happening in the minutes before you left the house bears directly on that element — not as a freestanding excuse, but as evidence about the state of mind the State has to establish.

Second, sec. 31-11-102 is limited to taking a vehicle for the purpose of temporarily making use of it. Conduct amounting to a permanent taking now falls under Wyoming's consolidated theft statute, Wyo. Stat. sec. 6-3-402 — a different and considerably more serious track. Establishing which statute you are actually charged under is the first thing to do, because the wreck and the fire may tempt the State toward the theft framing even though your own account describes a temporary taking.

Be clear-eyed about the rest. If you were arrested for driving under the influence, that is a separate charge with its own elements. If the vehicle was destroyed, property-damage charges and a civil claim by the owner are separate again. And the fact that you were struck and forced out of the house may be a criminal matter of its own — but none of that automatically excuses the taking. It is context your lawyer has to develop, not a switch that turns the charge off.

What you can do 1. Stop talking about that night — to police, to the girlfriend and her family, to any insurance adjuster, and on social media. Everything you say about why you took the car becomes evidence about the mental state the State must prove. 2. Document the assault now, while it still can be documented. Get medical attention if you were injured, photograph any injuries, and preserve texts, calls, and messages from that night and the hours around it. 3. Write out the full sequence of events for your lawyer only — dated, detailed, addressed to your attorney. Do not post it or send it to anyone else. 4. Get the charging document and identify the exact statute. Whether the State charged Wyo. Stat. sec. 31-11-102 or the theft statute at sec. 6-3-402 changes everything that follows. 5. Get a Wyoming criminal defense lawyer and tell them about the assault in the first meeting, along with what you had been drinking and anything you said to officers. 6. If a no-contact or protection order exists, follow it literally — no calls, no messages, nothing routed through friends. A violation will damage your position more than the underlying case. 7. Preserve the vehicle-related records you can reach — where it was towed, any fire or accident report number, any photographs.

⏱ Time limits apply. If you were also arrested for driving under the influence and handed paperwork about your driver's license, that notice starts a short, separate clock — measured in days from the date on the notice — to demand an administrative hearing, and it runs whether or not a court date has been set. The license case and the criminal case are two separate tracks with different standards of proof, and they can come out differently on the same night's events. Find that notice today and give it to your lawyer; the exact deadline depends on the date it carries.