Colorado woman gets 2–4 years for charging police in car while fleeing with boyfriend

CASPER, Wyo. — A Colorado woman was sentenced to two to four years in state prison on Thursday for charging at law enforcement in her boyfriend’s vehicle while the pair tried to escape from the Motel 6 on Wilkins Circle in January.

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigations agents began to suspect that Paige Streweler-Hall’s boyfriend, Casper native Christian Matthew Cole, was involved in distributing methamphetamine and fentanyl in Natrona County, according to an agent’s affidavit filed in the Seventh Judicial District. One source told DCI agents that Cole had brought 12,000 fentanyl pills and 3.5 pounds of meth to Casper from Colorado sometime around Christmas 2023.

With a circuit court warrant, multiple law enforcement agencies converged on the North Casper motel on Jan. 12. Cole and Streweler-Hall left the room and got into their Mercedes, with Streweler-Hall at the wheel, when law enforcement appeared.

The affidavit says Streweler-Hall charged at officers and struck two of their vehicles. She also drove over curbs, knocked an unattended vehicle out of its parking spot and ran two stop signs. Two tactical vehicle interventions were deployed before the Mercedes was disabled on North Poplar Street near the Ramkota. Cole reportedly fled briefly on foot. Both were arrested.

In one hearing, Streweler-Hall said Cole had forced her to drive at gunpoint.

Cole pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine in federal court and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Aug. 22. Federal filings indicate the case is under appeal. Natrona County resident William Tanner Jackson was also named in the same federal indictment as Cole.

In circuit court after his arrest in January, Cole said he had grown up in Casper and moved to Denver about 10 years ago. He said he and his girlfriend, Streweler-Hall, began returning to Natrona County late last year.

Streweler-Hall was missing for several months earlier this year after jumping bail. After five unsuccessful bounty hunting trips to Colorado, Casper bondsman Steve Willadsen found her at an apartment in Boulder and returned her to the Natrona County Detention Center on June 9.

Strewler-Hall told the court she’d been booking cleaning gigs and had applied to business schools online.

She said she took full accountability for her actions before Judge Catherine Wilking on Thursday morning. “I do want to say I’m sorry to the state of Wyoming, specifically the city of Casper,” she said.

Due to her contact with Cole, including being seen driving to various locations in Casper with him, Streweler-Hall initially faced drug conspiracy charges. She ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated eluding and misdemeanor interference.

According to her attorney, Dylan Rosalez, Streweler-Hall still faces one to three years for a sentence in Colorado.