Dustin Cooper
YERINGTON — A Lyon County jury has found a Yerington man guilty of fatally shooting his wife, a U.S. Postal Service worker.
Dustin Cooper was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in the March 2016 death of 26-year-old Johnie Shadden.
Sheriff’s deputies say Shadden was shot in her front yard when she stopped by the couple’s home just north of Yerington while delivering the U.S. mail on her postal route.
Cooper had called 911 and reported the gun fell off the porch and discharged while he was inside the house.
U.S. Postal Inspectors and the FBI assisted Lyon County in the investigation before Cooper was arrested in December 2016.
The Reno Gazette Journal reports Cooper waived his right to have the jury determine his penalty so a judge will sentence him on a date yet to be determined.