Man gets 22–25 years for home invasion that terrorized deputy’s family

CASPER, Wyo. — A Casper man was sentenced to 22–25 years in state prison on Tuesday for a violent home invasion in east Casper over a year ago. Unbeknownst to the two home invaders, the house belonged to a recent Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputy and his family, including his pregnant wife.

A jury saw home security footage of Joel Lee Wilson, now 42, breaking through the front door with shoulder strikes in the late morning hours of Nov. 18, 2023, followed closely by partner-in-crime Daniel Charles Hemmer.

The wife had been watching TV and the deputy was sleeping, according to the case record. Wilson attacked him as he roused up and the resulting melee broke the couch in half, according to former Casper Police Detective Andrew Lincowski at a preliminary hearing for Wilson.

Wilson and Hemmer fled after the wife retrieved a gun and trained it on the attackers but couldn’t get it to work, Lincowski said. A child also bore witness to the home invasion.

“They lost their home,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson said at Wilson’s sentencing before Judge Kerri Johnson this week. “They were terrified and they moved.”

“We had recruited a great employee and his family to move to the Casper area and be a part of this community,” NCSO spokesperson Kiera Hett told Oil City News. “This was traumatizing for them and we were saddened by the actions of these individuals which ultimately drove the young man and his family away.”

Nelson said that Wilson had been recruited by Hemmer, who had lost drugs in a traffic stop, for the home invasion. Lincowski said at the preliminary hearing that Hemmer had drawn up a phony search warrant for the home. At hearings in Hemmer’s case, Judge Catherine Wilking said her understanding was that Hemmer and Wilson had planned to rob a drug dealer who may have lived there previously.

Earlier in the day, Hemmer had texted “Wanna go serve someone” to Wilson.

Wilson told Judge Johnson on Tuesday he’d made a down payment to Hemmer for a generator, and that Hemmer told him the generator was stolen by the man who lived at the house.

Judge Johnson said that explanation was refuted by “every ounce of evidence” at trial.

Wilson said he apologized to the victims, the community of Casper and his mother.

“I beat myself up about it every day,” he said.

Nelson said that Wilson had 24 theft-type crimes, three counts of burglary, 16 drug charges and eight crimes of violence in his criminal history. He also said he had helped prosecute Wilson in Uinta County in 2013 on a drug conspiracy and battery case, at which time Wilson had spoken about wanting to seek treatment for addiction.

“Alas, Mr. Joel Wilson does not change his behavior,” Nelson said.

Wilson was convicted in the home invasion case of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and two misdemeanors: breach of peace and property destruction.

He was arrested in the trailer he’d been living in at the east-side Walmart parking lot the day after the home invasion. The state had agreed to give him credit for the 485 days served since that arrest.

Judge Johnson knocked that down to 305 days, saying the first 180 days would be considered time served for the misdemeanors.