CASPER, Wyo. — A Texas man with ties to Casper was on trial this week on charges alleging sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl.
The trial started Tuesday, and the jury went into deliberation around 11:30 a.m. Friday. The jury remains in deliberations as of 4:30 p.m.
Jacob William Degoyette, 29, faces the possibility of life in prison due to a previous conviction in 2015 for first-degree sexual assault, according to state filings.
He is charged now in Natrona County with charges including first- and third-degree sexual abuse of a minor. He is presumed innocent unless found guilty by the jury.
“She knew where she’d been touched,” prosecutor Patrick LeBrun told the jury during closing statements on Friday. “Now, so do you.”
Guardians of a 10-year-old girl reported the allegations to the Casper Police Department in March 2025. According to the affidavit, the girl was interviewed by the Children’s Advocacy Project and said Degoyette showed her pornography and touched her genitals in his bed. Degoyette had been living and working in Texas and would travel to Casper.
The third-degree charge concerns “immodest, immoral, or indecent liberties,” which Wyoming courts define only inasmuch as the conduct would be seen as improper to the “common sense of society.”
The first-degree charge alleges intrusion, “however slight,” into the genital region.
Degoyette reportedly denied any sexual conduct with the girl, telling CPD Detective Tiffany Elhart that the girl was a “huge liar,” according to the affidavit. Prosecutors filed successfully to suppress any such statements or characterizations of the girl as a liar at trial.
Degoyette also suggested to police that the allegations were designed to undermine his standing in a pending family court case.
The trial included recorded forensic interviews with the girl from both Rock Springs and Casper. Degoyette’s defense attorney, Jospeh Hampton, reminded the jury of those interviews during closings. He said that statements by the girl such as, “So, that’s basically grooming, right?” when talking about the defendant were indicative of coaching. He said interviewers had asked leading questions, and that the girl’s trial testimony reflected more definitive accusations than those leveled in initial interviews.
Hampton pointed out that the charged conduct allegedly occurred in a bed in which Degoyette’s partner was sleeping.
“They have not investigated a case,” Hampton said. “They’ve made a case.”
LeBrun said that the girl’s recollection of the pornographic video included details too specific for a 10-year-old girl to make up. He referenced expert testimony to explain the three-week delay in disclosing the allegations.
However, Hampton reminded the jury that, despite a forensic investigation into Degoyette’s phone and devices, the video described had not been recovered.
According to a pre-trial defense filing, Degoyette’s 2015 conviction involved having sex with an overly intoxicated 14-year-old when he was 18.
References to this case emerged in trial, though Judge Catherine Wilking advised the jury that this prior “bad act” was not evidence of a new one, though it could be considered for the purposes of establishing motive.
