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Rule 4 – Warrant or summons upon information

May 14, 2021 | Criminal Procedure, Wyoming

(a) Issuance. –

If it appears from a verified information, or from an affidavit or affidavits filed with the information, that there is probable cause to believe that an offense has been committed and that the defendant has committed it, a summons shall issue requiring the defendant to appear and answer to the information. Upon the request of the attorney for the state the court shall issue a warrant, rather than a summons. More than one warrant or summons may issue on the same information. The warrant or summons shall be delivered to the sheriff or other person authorized by law to execute or serve it. If a defendant fails to appear in response to the summons, a warrant shall issue.

(b) Form. –

(1) Warrant. – The warrant shall be signed by a judicial officer and it shall contain the name of the defendant or, if the defendant’s name is unknown, any name or description by which the defendant can be identified with reasonable certainty. It shall describe the offense charged in the information and command that the defendant be arrested and brought before the court from which it was issued.
(2)
(c) Execution or service; return. –

(1) By Whom. – A warrant shall be executed by a sheriff or by some other officer authorized by law. A summons shall be served by any peace officer or by any person over the age of 19 years, not a party to the action, appointed for such purpose by the clerk. A summons to a corporation shall be served by delivering a copy to an officer or to a managing or general agent or to any other agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service of process and, if the agent is one authorized by statute to receive service and the statute so requires, by also mailing a copy to the corporation’s last address within the state or at its principal place of business elsewhere in the United States. The officer executing a warrant shall bring the arrested person promptly before the court, or for the purpose of admission to bail, before a commissioner.
(2) Territorial Limits. – A warrant may be executed or a summons may be served at any place as permitted by law.
(3) Manner. – The warrant shall be executed by the arrest of the defendant. The officer need not have the warrant in the officer’s possession at the time of the arrest, but shall provide a copy of the warrant to the defendant as soon as possible. If the officer does not have the warrant in the officer’s possession at the time of the arrest, the officer shall then inform the defendant of the offense charged and of the fact that a warrant has been issued. The summons shall be served upon a defendant by delivering a copy to the defendant personally, or by leaving it at the defendant’s dwelling house or usual place of abode with some person over the age of 14 years then residing therein or by mailing it to the defendant’s last known address.
(4) Return. – The officer executing the warrant shall forthwith make return thereof to the court from which it issued. At the request of the attorney for the state, any unexecuted warrant shall be returned to the judicial officer by whom it was issued and shall be canceled. On or before the return day the person to whom a summons was delivered for service shall make return thereof to the court to which the summons is returnable. At the request of the attorney for the state made at any time while the information is pending, a warrant returned unexecuted and not canceled or a summons returned unserved or a duplicate thereof may be delivered by the judicial officer to the sheriff or other authorized person for execution of service.

Wyo. R. Prac. & P. 4