Casper man sentenced for entering Mills home, assaulting man in bed

CASPER, Wyo — A 31-year-old Casper man was sentenced to up to four years in prison on Friday for going into the house of Mills man last year and attacking him, breaking his dentures and leaving his face bruised and bloodied.

Nicklas Andrew Mathill had entered an Alford guilty plea to unlawful entry to commit battery and felony property destruction. The plea means he essentially maintains his innocence while not withing to challenge the state’s evidence or lose out on a plea offer.

“This was a gratuitous act of violence,” Judge Kerri Johnson said when recounting the events of the case at the end of a contested sentencing hearing.

Prosecutor Jeff Meyers said that Mathill’s motivations for the crime were apparently ”inexplicable.”

On Feb 28, 2024, Mills police responded to a report of man who who had been assaulted while laying in his bed and getting ready to go to sleep, according to the affidavit.  His dog started barking and a man whom he did not know came into the doorway and punched him in the face multiple times. He said the fight went on for 10 minutes before he said he was calling police and the attacker fled.

The only other person in the house saw some of the fight and told police he was positive the attacker was Mathill. Officers learned that Mathill did know the victim’s daughter, according to the affidavit.

The Mills police officer on scene noted multiple bruises and cuts on the victim’s face and blood on his mouth and shirt.

The victim’s bottom set of dentures was valued at $1,500, and restitution was part of his sentence.

Mathill appeared at sentencing Friday while out on bond, and the hearing began with Johnson addressing his motion to withdraw his guilty plea, which had been filed less than a day before.

Johnson recited the seven points of legal analysis to determine if there was good cause to withdraw the plea and concluded that Mathill appeared to be having “belated misgivings” about entering into the plea agreement.

The hearing continued with the state’s motion was calling off the plea agreement due to a new felony domestic violence allegations stemming from an incident in December.

The woman in that case took the stand Friday to recant her sworn statements to police, saying that her mother had called police and written out her statements while she was being treated at the hospital. Casper Police Officer Casson Burgen took the stand to testify to the injuries he saw on Dec 10 while investigating the call, including a cut on the woman’s face, a bloody nose, and red marks around her neck from an alleged strangulation.

Mathill is presumed innocent unless proven or pleading guilty in that case, and the evidence presented Friday was to support the revocation of the plea deal in the unlawful battery case.

Johnson said she didn’t find the alleged victim’s new story credible.

Meyer said Mathill was also awaiting sentencing on another domestic battery case against a different victim.

“You are a danger to the community at this time,” Judge Johnson said in her sentencing decision.

Mathill was sentenced to 18 to 48 months in prison on the Mills case, and will get credit for 94 days served.