Laramie Man Sentenced For Conspiracy to Commit Murder

A Laramie man has been sentenced for Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the First Degree.

Forty-year-old Ryan Brown received a sentence today of life imprisonment for his role in what prosecutors say was a conspiracy to kill a Cheyenne man with a pipe bomb.

The life sentence is the minimum penalty Brown could have received today, with the maximum possible sentence being life without the possibility of parole.

Brown was accused of conspiring with two other men, William Ferrill and Eric Farrar, to kill a man who he thought was having an affair with his wife. The other two accused in the conspiracy made plea agreements in which they pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Manufacture an Improvised Explosives Device, which is a felony. Both men were sentenced in early July.

Prosecutors say that during the investigation, an unfinished pipe bomb was discovered in the garage at Brown’s residence. They said the device was created with the intent of killing a man in Cheyenne.

Brown claimed that he made the device to break up rocks at a property in Arlington, but the jury deliberated for less than two hours before returning with a guilty verdict during his trial in May.

Brown’s defense attorney and state prosecutors all recommended to Albany County District Court Judge Jeffrey Donnell that Brown should receive the minimum penalty of life imprisonment.

Judge Donnell agreed with the attorneys, saying that Brown’s lack of criminal history and the circumstances of the crime itself did not warrant a sentence with no parole option.

“That’s reserved for a special class of people who inflict death,” Donnell said of the maximum penalty for the crime.

Donnell told Brown that he committed a crime by talking about killing someone and then taking the actions to accomplish that goal. He said that Brown had taken the steps to scout out the victim’s residence and began making a pipe bomb. Donnell said that he did not know if Brown would have followed through with the plan, saying only Brown himself could know.

“I don’t know what got in your head. I really don’t,” Donnell told Brown. “But it got way out of hand, and this is the price you pay.”