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Rule 9 – Warrant or summons upon indictment

May 14, 2021 | Criminal Procedure, Wyoming

(a) Issuance and deliverance. –

The court shall issue or direct the clerk to issue a summons for each defendant named in the indictment unless a warrant is requested by the attorney for the state. Upon the request of the attorney for the state, the court shall order a warrant, rather than a summons, to be issued. More than one warrant or summons may issue for the same defendant. 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 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 and shall be signed by a judicial officer except that, upon the court’s direction, it may be signed by the clerk. The warrant shall describe the offense charged in the indictment and command that the defendant be arrested and brought before the court. The amount of bail may be fixed by the court and endorsed on the warrant.
(2) Summons. – The summons shall be in the same form as the warrant except that it shall summon the defendant to appear before the court at a stated time and place.
(c) Execution or service; return. –

(1) Execution or Service. – A warrant shall be executed by a peace officer or by some other officer authorized by law. A summons shall be served by the sheriff 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 within the State of Wyoming and the jurisdiction of the court.
(3) Manner. – The warrant shall be executed by the arrest of the defendant. The officer need not have the warrant in possession at the time of the arrest, but provide a copy of the warrant to the defendant as soon as possible. If the officer does not have the warrant in 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 a warrant shall make return thereof to the court. At the request of the attorney for the state, any unexecuted warrant shall be returned and canceled. On or before the return day, the person to whom a summons was delivered for service shall make return thereof. At the request of the attorney for the state made at any time while the indictment is pending, a warrant returned unexecuted and not canceled, or a summons returned unserved, or a duplicate thereof, may be delivered by the clerk to the sheriff or other authorized person for execution or service.

Wyo. R. Prac. & P. 9