Originally charged with kidnapping, a man accused of confining and torturing his ex-girlfriend for about six excruciating weeks now faces a felony charge of methamphetamine and cocaine possession.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Montana charged Adolfo Vargas Lepe in June for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend from her mother’s home in Lander, Wyoming, and taking her to his Montana home.
There, court documents claim, Lepe reportedly beat, shot, stabbed, punched and whipped the woman for more than a month. He allegedly poked her with a metal stake, bashed her with a heavy wood lamp, tried to gouge her eyes out with his hands, choked her, hit her, stuck a tuning fork-like object into her nostrils, broke her nose and punched her while she was sleeping, says the affidavit.
A grand jury last week added another charge, accusing Lepe of possessing and intending to distribute at least 500 grams of methamphetamine drugs and another substance containing cocaine.
Unlike the affidavit, the indictment does not list the evidence that led the grand jury to that charge.
The new count is punishable by up to 30 years in prison and up to $11 million in fines, if Lepe is convicted for both the meth and cocaine elements of the charge, according to the grand jury’s Aug. 23 indictment.
The kidnapping charge is punishable by a term up to life in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Lepe’s jury trial is set for Oct. 30 before Judge Susan P. Watters, in the U.S. District Court for Montana in Billings.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
