Authorities disclosed few details at arrest, but court records and local reports show how the case developed from a March 2025 emergency into a murder prosecution.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — When the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of John D. Haney last month, the one-page release was sparse: a 41-year-old Cheyenne man, two felony charges and a death investigation that began a year earlier.
Since then, court records described by local news organizations have filled in the picture of why investigators say the death of Haney’s girlfriend’s 10-month-old daughter was not an unexplained medical emergency. The child died after a 911 call from Haney’s home in March 2025. By the time detectives arrested him on March 20, 2026, they had gathered autopsy results, examined old injuries, reviewed cloud-stored camera records and presented a judge with a theory of homicide and abuse that kept him jailed on a $1 million cash bond.
The official chronology began with the sheriff’s office response to Haney’s home after he reported finding the baby unresponsive. In the account attributed to him in the probable cause affidavit, Haney said he had been caring for the girl that morning after picking her up from her mother. He told investigators he fed her, put her down for a nap and later went to the bathroom, leaving her alone for several minutes. He said he returned to find her face-down in the crib, checked for a pulse and started CPR before calling 911. The text he sent the mother moments later, according to local reporting, was urgent and direct: come home now. Emergency crews took over when they arrived, but the child was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The investigation did not move quickly in public because the decisive pieces took time to gather. Detectives had to wait for a full medical review. They also had to seek records tied to Haney’s Ring camera system, which included multiple devices in and around the home. Those records, according to the affidavit summarized by local outlets, showed that video clips from the morning were deleted shortly before law enforcement arrived. One recording captured what detectives believed was the baby screaming after motion was triggered by a dog. Another description of the footage placed Haney in a bathroom doorway before the video cut off. Investigators said no clip showed him leaving. Haney denied intentionally deleting anything and later said he did not remember doing so. Detectives wrote that the deletions would have required several separate, deliberate steps.
At the same time, the medical side of the case shifted the meaning of the death itself. X-rays found fractures in one arm and both legs, with records saying the injuries were in various stages of healing. Doctors described those injuries as highly concerning and suggestive of abuse. The child’s mother told detectives she had seen swelling in the baby’s legs and feet and had noticed reduced use of the limbs in the weeks before the death, but she believed the change might have been tied to medication the girl was taking for an earache. When the final autopsy findings were completed in December 2025, investigators concluded the child died from asphyxiation and that the manner of death was homicide. That ruling appears to have provided the forensic anchor detectives needed to complete the case.
The court response was swift once the arrest was made. At Haney’s initial appearance, prosecutors asked for a $500,000 cash bond. Judge Timothy Forwood raised it to $1 million cash, saying the seriousness of the alleged crime could not be overstated, according to local reporting. Haney said he could not afford that amount and asked for appointed counsel. Public reports also identified him as a lieutenant in the Wyoming Air National Guard Fire Department, adding another layer of local attention because the affidavit said he had emergency training and experience with CPR. That detail may matter later as prosecutors argue what he knew, how he acted and whether his account of the scene matched what a trained responder would have observed.
What remains unresolved is what prosecutors will be able to prove beyond the charging papers. The sheriff’s office has said the case remains active, and authorities have not publicly laid out every expert opinion or piece of evidence they may use. For now, the public version of the case is a composite built over time: a child left in one adult’s care, a short emergency timeline challenged by responders, prior injuries seen on imaging, a scream recorded on a motion-triggered camera and deleted clips that detectives say were erased just before deputies arrived.
Currently, Haney remained held on a $1 million cash bond, and the next milestone is the hearing that will determine whether the felony case advances to district court.
Author note: Last updated April 17, 2026.