A Campbell County jury has found Evan Haywood guilty of stalking his ex-girlfriend and violating a protection order, capping a case that stretched from a Gillette hotel to a Denver hotel where police had to escort him off the property. Haywood, who dated the woman for four years and shares a one-year-old daughter with her, is scheduled to be sentenced on November 10.
According to the Gillette News Record, Haywood was tried before District Judge Michael McGrady on charges that he stalked his ex-girlfriend at hotels in both Denver and Gillette. Prosecutors told jurors Haywood left the woman more than 40 voicemails before she blocked his number, and he also contacted her friends and ex-husband. The woman's protection order application was granted on December 18, 2025, and Haywood was released from jail the following day, the paper reports.
Under Wyoming Statute § 6-2-506, stalking is ordinarily a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison, but it escalates to a felony carrying up to 10 years behind bars when committed in violation of a protective order, according to FindLaw. That statutory mechanism is what elevated Haywood's case to felony status once the protection order was in place.
A Pattern That Crossed State Lines
The News Record's account describes a string of incidents that began well before the trial. The woman reported that someone slashed one of her car tires on January 4, 2026, and she suspected Haywood was responsible. Days later, a DoorDash delivery arrived at her home containing a box of chocolates sent by someone identifying himself only as “daddy,” which she later identified as Haywood.
Two days after that chocolate delivery, Haywood contacted the woman by phone, according to the paper's reporting. He was also seen near Monte Vista Lane and Stetson Drive, and police and deputies responded to a business in the 2900 block of Hackathorn Lane in connection with the case. The woman told investigators she believed Haywood was watching her, based on text messages she had received, per the outlet's account.
Wyoming statute W.S. 6-2-506(g) allows prosecutors to present acts occurring across multiple jurisdictions, including out-of-state locations like Denver, as evidence of a single continuing course of conduct in stalking trials, according to WomensLaw.org. That provision is what allowed prosecutors to weave together Haywood's conduct in both Wyoming and Colorado into one case.
The Hotel Incidents
The woman had booked a room at the Wingate in Gillette, and Haywood called the hotel seeking her, asking staff to call him if she arrived, the News Record reports. He also called the woman three times, asking her to return and pick him up. In Denver, he was accused of trying to break a hotel window lock, and Denver police responded to the incident there, ultimately escorting him off the property.
When confronted about his presence near the Gillette hotel, Haywood said he was there by coincidence, telling investigators, “I just pulled up whenever she happened to be outside.” He offered another explanation for being in the area, saying he was driving to get transmission fluid for his truck. He also threw a rock at the passenger side of the woman's car, which caused a dent in the car door, and left her a message saying, “It's me. I'm sorry, and I love you.”
Facebook Post Violated Protection Order
Haywood also violated the protection order by posting comments on the Facebook page of the Y.E.S. House Foundation on January 9, 2026, according to the case record, a violation that also occurred at the Y.E.S. House itself. The Gillette-based nonprofit served 1,325 youth and families in 2025 through crisis shelters, counseling and family resource programs. The woman's supervisors contacted police about the Facebook comments that same day.
The woman also told investigators Haywood had allegedly threatened to kill her if she broke up with him, and separately threatened to kill whoever she dated after him, according to her account. Police eventually arrested Haywood at his home. He waived his preliminary hearing in January and was bound over to Campbell County District Court on charges including two felony counts of stalking, violating a protection order, and defrauding a drug test, according to County 17.
While the felony case was still pending, Campbell County Sheriff's Office records show Haywood was booked into the Campbell County Detention Center in April on a separate misdemeanor battery charge, according to the same outlet's reporting. It remains unclear whether that separate charge will factor into his pre-sentence investigation ahead of his November hearing.
Courtroom Security and the Judge's Record
Judge McGrady, who presided over Haywood's trial, signed an administrative order in December 2025 restricting weapons, electronic devices and impaired individuals from the second floor of the Campbell County Courthouse, citing rising nationwide security risks in public courtrooms. McGrady has handled other major felony cases recently, including a 12-to-15-year prison sentence in a kidnapping case in February 2026 and a negligent homicide trial in late 2025, according to Cowboy State Daily.
A Statewide and National Pattern
The case lands amid broader concerns about intimate partner violence in Wyoming. An estimated 16.3% of women in the state experience intimate partner stalking during their lifetimes, and law enforcement agencies statewide logged 1,959 domestic violence incidents in 2024, according to the Wyoming Department of Health. The Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault operates legal assistance programs statewide to help victims navigate protection order proceedings and coordinate with law enforcement during criminal stalking trials.
Nationally, domestic relationship violence resulted in more than 11,000 fatalities across the United States between 2020 and 2024, with women representing the clear majority of victims, according to a special report released by the FBI in February. Haywood now awaits his November 10 sentencing, facing a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison on the felony stalking conviction.
