It took a month, but law enforcement arrested a homeless man accused of smothering, beating and biting his pregnant girlfriend in a trailer on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Steven Cole C’Bearing, 29, reached a plea agreement in his case Thursday, and prosecutors reduced his original four charges to one felony charge of assault by strangulation, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
The plea agreement has not been made public.
C’Bearing is accused of strangling and beating his girlfriend the evening of May 18, but police did not arrest him until June 22, due to what a case affidavit calls his “itinerant and homeless nature.”
Fighting For Air
C’Bearing’s girlfriend told police the evening of May 18 that she, C’Bearing and C’Bearing’s were at his trailer on the reservation that night, when he grew angry, strangled and beat her, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Luke Williamson.
The girlfriend was 34 weeks pregnant. The brothers had been drinking together, the affidavit says.
Though the document says C’Bearing had a trailer, it also references his “homeless nature.” There are cases in Fremont County of people who have homes, but wander nevertheless.
As he drank, C’Bearing voiced anger and suspicion of his girlfriend cheating. He wouldn’t let her leave the trailer, the affidavit alleges, and he smothered her mouth and nose with his hand.
She forced “a little bit” of air through her nose, the affidavit says.
C’Bearing’s brother yelled at him to intervene, and C’Bearing let up the beating. But then C’Bearing allegedly attacked again, pushing his girlfriend down and putting both his hand and leg around her neck. She couldn’t breathe at all, the affidavit says.
The woman later recounted to police that her throat hurt and she felt sick.
“C’Bearing then hit (her) in the face several times, bit (her) right arm, ripped her clothes and began pulling (her) toward the trailer’s back bedroom,” the affidavit continues. “C’Bearing pushed (her) down and slapped her, then hit her with keys in her lower back.”
In The Taco Bell Bathroom
Eventually, the document says, he calmed down and let her leave the trailer, but he went with her.
She planned to deliver a DoorDash order from Riverton and drove to the Taco Bell in Riverton’s business thoroughfare.
When C’Bearing went inside to use the bathroom, the woman left him there, drove to the car wash and called 911.
In The Hospital
The call routed to the Riverton Police Department, but that agency turned the case over to the Wind River Police Department when agents realized the alleged beating happened on the reservation.
Two Wind River officers went to the car wash that evening, then summoned Williamson to meet with the woman at about 10:27.
The woman was at the Riverton SageWest Health Care by then.
She told Williamson that C’Bearing was her unborn baby’s father, and she recounted the alleged beating.
Law enforcement and medical personnel saw and photographed numerous injuries on the woman’s body including:
- Forehead bruising and swelling
- Scratches and red marks on her neck and chest
- A bite mark on her right wrist
- Scratch marks on her back
- And redness and marks to both sides of her face
In a follow-up interview the next day the woman affirmed the details she’d given the day before, and said C’Bearing had assaulted her and strangled her on other occasions, the affidavit says.
But she didn’t report those earlier incidents to law enforcement, she said.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
