A Cheyenne man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and felony child abuse in the 2021 death of a two-year-old Cheyenne boy whose body was found in a dumpster, prosecutors say.

Wyatt Dean Lamb, 29, entered the pleas Wednesday in Laramie County District Court as part of a plea agreement.

Lamb was originally charged with first-degree murder and 10 counts of child abuse in the death of Athian Rivera, his former girlfriend Kassandra Orona's son.

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Police say they were called to Orona's apartment shortly after 1 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2021, after she reported that Rivera was missing.

The toddler's "still warm" body was found wrapped inside five trash bags -- later found to have Lamb's fingerprints on them -- in a nearby dumpster about two hours later, according to an affidavit.

An autopsy report signed May 6, 2021, concluded that Rivera "died of cerebral edema with herniation due to blunt force trauma or hypoxic brain injury, or a combination of both."

There were also "patterned burn injuries to his groin with features consistent with infliction by the torch found at the scene," according to the report.

Lamb, who had reportedly been living with Orona and her three children since August 2020 in violation of his bond in a February 2020 strangulation case involving Orona, also pleaded no contest in that case.

The plea agreement calls for a recommended sentence of 45 to 60 years for the second-degree murder charge and a recommended sentence of eight to 10 years for the child abuse charge to run concurrently with each other.
It also calls for a recommended sentence of eight to 10 years in the strangulation case to be served consecutively to the sentences imposed in the murder case.

For more information about this case, check out our earlier posts:

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