Man gets 62 years to life in prison after strangling Casper man to death

CASPER, Wyo. — The man convicted by a jury of second-degree homicide for beating and strangling 28-year-old Chance Arias to death in a Casper motel last March was sentenced to 62 years to life in prison on Thursday.

“It tears me up because of the pain I caused this family,” 44-year-old James Franklin Mavigliano told Judge Dan Forgey at the hearing. “For what I’ve done I just need to accept my punishment and get better.”

He will get credit for the 353 days served since his arrest just hours after the homicide.

Mavigliano and a woman were guests in Arias’s motel room on March 5 when Arias reportedly told him to be mindful of his volume and the rules of the motel, according to statements introduced at trial. Mavigliano, who had just smoked methamphetamine, told Casper Police Department investigators he’d seen Arias’s shoulder “drop,” which he interpreted as a windup to swing. Other statements in the police interview indicated a state of meth-induced paranoia.

The jury also convicted Mavigliano of possession of methamphetamine. When police found him at a bus stop just hours after the body was discovered, the pipe was found in his bag, along with a bloody lamp and some of Arias’s personal items.

At the trial in December, Mavigliano’s public defense team claimed self-defense.

“Obviously, the jury disagreed with that,” District Attorney Dan Itzen told the court on Thursday. “This was unbridled aggression against a victim who, frankly, wasn’t able to defend himself.”

Mavigliano himself had told police that he was an able fighter and that Arias never landed a blow as he punched him multiple times, held him down on the bed, struck him with a lamp base and wrapped the cord around his neck. Mavigliano told police he didn’t let up until he heard the hissing sound of Arias’s dying breath like air coming out of a tire, according to the police report.

At his initial appearance last March, Mavigliano said that he was homeless and had come to Casper around May 2023. He’d been released that year from an Alabama prison after serving 17 years on convictions for attempted murder and aggravated robbery. Before the homicide, Mavigliano had racked up 10 misdemeanor charges in less than a year in Natrona County, Itzen said Thursday.

Members of Arias’s family shared their memories of him with Oil City News after the hearing. His stepmom Michelle said Chance was a brilliant self-taught mechanic and was extremely close to his stepfather, Joe, who had raised him since the age of 1. She recalled waking up many mornings to Joe and Chance’s “infectious” laughter, and said that they were working together to build a business.

“He was a pretty calm person that didn’t talk a lot of crap to people,” his brother Allen said.

Stepbrother JD said Chance was great at telling stories and jokes, and recalled numerous outings hunting, fishing, shooting and riding bikes on the trails.

“I’ll go sit at his favorite spot on the mountain and try to think of him,” JD said.