A Lander, Wyoming, man accused of beating his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend with a baseball bat after breaking her wireless router and smothering her bed in trash now faces six felonies in a state district court.
Natuin John Trosper, 25, had eluded prosecution for nearly four years until his case was elevated to felony-level court Friday. He’s charged with:
• Two counts of aggravated assault, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
• One count of felony stalking, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
• One count of burglary, same penalty.
• One count of aggravated burglary, punishable by between five and 25 years in prison and up to $50,000 in fines.
• One count of misdemeanor theft, punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.
Fremont County Public Defender supervisor Jon Gerard declined Monday to comment, citing the active state of the case.
An Oldie
Trosper’s case was first charged Nov. 9, 2020.
It sat idle at the lower court level for four years until it was filed in Fremont County District Court on Friday.
The case is so old, the prosecutor who first filed the charges against Trosper is now a judge, and the judge who issued a warrant for Trosper’s arrest in late 2020 is retired.
Lander Police Department Chief Scott Peters did not immediately return a request for comment on where Trosper was for four years. Fremont County Undersheriff Mike Hutchison also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It just took that long to execute the warrant,” Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun told Cowboy State Daily, declining to elaborate.
One court filing gives a rough idea of Trosper’s whereabouts in the intervening years: he got a job at a casino on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The casino hired him to a full-time position May 15, 2023, which he kept for more than a year, says a Sept. 30, 2024, filing by the casino’s human resources manager.
Red Flags Two Weeks Prior
Lander Police Department Sgt. John Cunningham responded to a home in town for a burglary call Oct. 13, 2020, says an evidentiary affidavit filed in Trosper’s case.
A woman who was then 20, and is now 24, told Cunningham that her ex-boyfriend — Trosper — had been sending her several texts, including photos of a Beats brand speaker he allegedly stole from her home.
She obtained a restraining order against Trosper following their breakup on Aug. 27, 2020. The affidavit says the restraining order was slated to last for a year.
The woman had gone to work Oct. 12, then over to a friend’s house, and she didn’t come home until the evening of Oct. 13, the document says.
Minutes ahead of her arriving home, Trosper texted her a photo of her Beats speaker and the words, “Thank you for the birthday money,” says the affidavit.
“Hey since you wanna be trash so I made Y’all car trash asf lmao,” he texted, says the document. “I will be back later and put it to flames.”
He then called her explicit names, sent her more photographs and said things like “kill yourself you fat pig,” according to the affidavit, which lists two-and-a-half pages of texts from Trosper to his ex-girlfriend.
“I wouldn’t even sad (sic) I’ll just laugh that you killed yourself lmao,” says one of the many texts in the affidavit.
The document says Trosper sent a text saying, “I’m trying give (sic) you a chance to talk,” followed by, “Yuh your lose” and a photograph of her kitchen.
“Better get here,” he added, reportedly.
Later he sent a photograph of the McDonald’s restaurant and the words, “I’m right behind y’all,” the affidavit says.
Trash
When the woman returned home after receiving these texts she noticed the power port to her wireless router was broken, and the router was out of place. Her trash can had been emptied and the trash spread across her bed. Her iPhone earphones were missing and her Beats speaker was gone, the document says.
Cunningham checked the front door for signs of front entry and didn’t see any fresh marks on the door, though he noted that the door had been kicked in previously. The woman said Trosper had kicked in that door prior before she got a restraining order against him, the affidavit says.
Two Weeks Later
On Oct. 30, 2020, at about 3:23 p.m. Lander Police Department Officers Trevor Budd and Jacob Halsmer were sent to the woman’s apartment for “an aggravated assault in progress,” says the document.
When they arrived they met with Trosper’s ex-girlfriend, and with a man who was at the apartment.
The man’s left eye was red and swollen; a bite mark with fresh blood marked his right forearm, Budd wrote later in the affidavit. The woman’s right arm had an “obvious deformity” near the wrist and her fingers were covered in blood, added Budd.
A baseball bat lay on the living room floor with blood on its barrel; fresh blood was on the carpet near the door to the patio, the document says. Elsewhere in the affidavit, the narrative says the bat was aluminum.
One of the guides to the sliding closet door had broken off.
Budd called for an ambulance.
The man said he was visiting the woman, and they were on the couch in her living room that afternoon.
Her apartment door swung open and Trosper entered with a baseball bat in his hand, he continued.
Trosper charged them both, and when the woman raised her hand to block her head, Trosper hit her hand with the bat, the man told police.
The man got between Trosper and the woman, taking a bat strike to his left hand in the process, says the document.
The man said that he was able to get the bat away from Trosper and fight him, but Trosper gouged at his eye with his finger and bit the man on the right arm hard enough to draw blood. Trosper wiggled free and ran off with the man’s cellphone, the latter told police.
At The Hospital
Budd went to the hospital to speak with the woman in the emergency room.
She said the pair used to live together, but they broke up and she got a protection order against him.
She and the other man were in her apartment the afternoon of Oct. 30 with the door unlocked because they were getting ready to leave. Trosper charged in and started swinging the bat from a right-handed batting position, she told Budd.
Like her male visitor, the woman also described the man getting between her and Trosper, then fighting Trosper while Trosper gouged at the man’s eye.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
