BREAKING: Man Gets Double Life Sentence for 2015 Cheyenne Coin Shop Murders
The man convicted of gunning down two men at The Coin Shop in downtown Cheyenne ten years ago will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Laramie County District Court Judge Catherine R. Rogers on Tuesday, Aug. 12, sentenced 69-year-old Douglas Mark Smith to back-to-back life sentences for the murders of 67-year-old Dwight M. Brockman and 76-year-old George "Doc" Manley.
Case Background
The horrific murders happened around 9:30 a.m. on July 20, 2015, just blocks from the Depot Plaza where a Cheyenne Frontier Days pancake breakfast was winding down.
Large crowds were circulating through the area when police say they received a 911 call from Smith stating an armed robbery was taking place.
Officers arrived to find Brockman, the shop owner, and Manley, his friend, dead from single gunshot wounds to the head.
Smith told Detective John Pederson, who has since retired from the force, that he was coming into work late that day and needed to go to The Coin Shop because he had reading material to drop off to a regular customer.
Smith said when he entered The Coin Shop, he saw who he believed to be Manley lying on the ground, then looked up and saw a Hispanic male pilfering the safe.
He said the Hispanic male turned towards him, pointed a gun at him, and said, "Get out or I'll shoot."
Smith said he dropped the reading material and ducked behind a bookshelf in front of the doorway, then bent over and picked up the reading material, ran out the door, got into his car, and called 911.
Police at the time never thought to check Smith or his car for a gun and once it was determined that no one was seen fleeing the scene that matched Mr. Smith's description of the Hispanic male, Smith was never looked at as a suspect.
The investigation remained open, but it wasn't until late 2022, when Detective James Pendleton was handed the case, that he was able to establish a timeline showing that Smith was the only one at The Coin Shop when the murders occurred.
On June 25, 2024, detectives, with help from the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Smith at his home in McCloud, California on a warrant for two counts of first-degree murder.
After four days of testimony and a day of deliberating, a Laramie County jury on July 18, found Smith guilty on both counts.
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Gallery Credit: Joy Greenwald