Big Horn prosecutor seeks trial for manhunt escapee accused of drugging, raping teen

Big Horn County’s top prosecutor asked Thursday for a trial date in the case of a man accused of force-feeding a 15-year-old girl Adderall before sexually assaulting her and evading law enforcement for two months. Big Horn County Attorney Marcia Bean’s filing also says she expects a criminal trial for Anthony Pease, 39, would take 10 days.

Pease faces two felony theft charges, four counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of third-degree sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation of a child. The case began Nov. 1 when a 44-year-old woman called 911 to report Pease had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in a garage in Byron. The woman and her son had gone to the garage after the girl texted the son pleas for help while the assault was ongoing.

According to the affidavit, Pease had asked the girl’s guardians to let him take her and her brother hiking that day. He drank one bottle of liquor and made the girl drink another, and broke Adderall pills in half, consuming one half and making the girl take the other half throughout the day. After the hike, Pease took the children to a store, then to a convenience store before taking them to the home where he was staying. The boy went to bed, but Pease told the girl to come to the garage.

The affidavit describes Pease forcing the girl to watch pornographic videos, telling her of his long mission to get her alone to have sex with her, and performing sex acts on her. She screamed for him to stop; after the second outburst, Pease raised his fists and told her to shut up or he’d beat her. When he went outside to urinate, the girl texted her friend: “got me drunk and raped me” and “Help please hurry.”

Pease remained on the loose for two months and eight days. On Jan. 9, U.S. Marshals and police in Fort Collins, Colorado, found him in a stolen white Ford Ranger with a stolen license plate. He was extradited back to Wyoming.

Big Horn County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Angell reported seeing a bloody tampon on the garage floor and two Adderall pill bottles—one empty—near the couch.