Death penalty off the table for Wyoming man who killed woman bound for Billings in 1988

By Ellen Gerst

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    CASPER, Wyoming (Casper Star-Tribune) — The death penalty is no longer on the table for Dale Wayne Eaton.

Court filings show that Eaton, who was convicted of the 1988 murder, rape and kidnapping of Lisa Marie Kimmell, is set to receive a non-capital sentence. At the time of the incident, Kimmell was driving from Colorado to Billings, where her family used to live.

A sentencing hearing was initially set for November, but has been postponed twice and will now tentatively take place in March, said Eaton’s attorney Terry Harris.

Natrona County prosecutors agreed to withdraw their intent to seek the death penalty in September 2021, court documents state.

The decision comes after Eaton completed a mental evaluation at the Wyoming State Hospital in August. Court filings state that evaluators found Eaton was not competent to withstand a capital sentencing hearing, but that he is able to proceed with sentencing that does not include the death penalty.

“The parties agree that Mr. Eaton’s death sentence … must now be replaced with a life sentence as required by federal law,” a stipulation filed by Harris in September states. “Mr. Eaton will undoubtedly remain in prison until he dies no matter how this court exercises its remaining sentencing discretion.”

Eaton is already serving a life sentence plus another 40 years, the filing states.

A jury concluded in his 2004 trial that he should be put to death for the crimes, but a federal judge took him off of death row in 2014 after finding he didn’t have appropriate representation during the penalty phase of his trial.

During that period, Eaton was the only person in Wyoming on death row. The last execution in the state took place 30 years ago, with Mark Hopkinson in 1992.

When prosecutors moved again for Eaton to receive the capital penalty, the court ruled that a mental evaluation was needed.

According to the state examiner, Eaton showed signs of dementia and depression, and has also recently suffered strokes that have damaged his brain function. He is confused at times, the examiner reported, and has trouble with speech and memory. A doctor noted Eaton thought he was 10 years older than his actual age.

While death penalty hearings can take months, sentencing without capital punishment as an option is much quicker, less complex and calls far fewer witnesses.

The sentencing is mostly a formality, since Eaton will already be spending the rest of his life behind bars. While the crime was committed in 1988, evidence did not implicate Eaton until more than a decade later.

Fourteen potential death penalty cases have been presented to Wyoming prosecutors since 2006. Just five of those have made it to a trial, and none of those resulted in a recommended death sentence.

Recent proposals have been made in the Wyoming Legislature to abolish the death penalty in the state, as opponents cite how much more expensive it is to prosecute cases with the potential punishment. The most recent attempt at repealing the death penalty in Wyoming died on the Senate floor during the 2021 legislative session. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, said that it costs around $750,000 a year to keep the state’s lawyers trained to deal with death penalty cases.

Capital trials tend to take up to four times as long to complete as other criminal cases, and often require the accused to be placed in special solitary confinement facilities with increased security, further adding to the cost.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 27 states, the federal government and U.S. military still have the death penalty. Aside from Colorado, Wyoming’s neighboring states all still have capital punishment on the books.

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