Michael Lynn Bishop, Appellant (defendant) v. the State of Wyoming, Appellee (plaintiff)

Summary

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed Michael Bishop's convictions for two Laramie burglaries (December 1980 and February 1982) but reversed his sentence and remanded for resentencing. The court held that evidence of two uncharged, unsolved burglaries (Bentley and McCue) was improperly admitted because the State failed to make the requisite prima facie showing that Bishop committed those extrinsic acts, but the error was harmless in light of overwhelming evidence of guilt and a limiting instruction; it also upheld the denial of his motion to sever the counts and held that restitution could not be imposed as a post-incarceration condition absent statutory authority. Justice Cardine, dissenting, joined by Justice Rose, would have reversed the convictions, contending the uncharged-burglary evidence was inadmissible propensity evidence whose admission could not be harmless.