The state of Wyoming has enough evidence to keep prosecuting two Big Piney men for their alleged involvement in the Feb. 2 impalement murder of a third man, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Rowan Littauer, 19, is charged with first-degree murder and Orion Schlesinger, 18, is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. They face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.
At separate Tuesday hearings, Pinedale Circuit Court Judge John LaBuda said there’s enough evidence in the case for Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich to keep prosecuting them both. His finding establishes probable cause for the charges applied to each, but doesn’t form a conviction of guilt.
LaBuda sent both cases to the Sublette County District Court, where the men can go to trial or negotiate some variation of guilty plea if they wish.
Littauer sat alert in his hearing in an orange jumpsuit and black-rimmed glasses.
Schlesinger, at his later hearing, sat weeping audibly, hanging his head, also in an orange jumpsuit and black-rimmed glasses.
Court documents say Littauer and Schlesinger made a plan the night of Feb. 1, to kill 23-year-old Big Piney man Dakota Farley.
They then walked more than a mile to Farley’s home, entered through the door – and Littauer shot Farley through the arm and chest with an arrow as Farley emerged from a back room in his home, according to court testimony.
The arrow went through Farley’s arm, through his aorta and into his trachea, killing him, according to a summary of the autopsy that Sublette County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Travis Lanning gave in court Tuesday.
When Farley fell to the floor, Littauer shot him a second time, in the head, according to Lanning’s breakdown of Littauer’s later interview with law enforcement.
Littauer later boasted to a friend via text message that the world now contained “one less pedophile,” according to Lanning’s testimony.
Melinkovich pushed back on the characterization, asking Lanning to discuss Sublette County Sheriff’s Office investigations into whether Farley had been inappropriate with any children.
Lanning said as far as he knew, Farley hadn’t targeted any children. Schlesinger’s girlfriend, a minor female identified by the initials “EK,” told investigators after the shooting that Farley had “creeped her out” but didn’t touch her.
Schlesinger and his girlfriend would spend time at Farley’s house, while the men played games, according to court testimony.
The Bind Over
Melinkovich conceded at Schlesinger’s hearing that in Wyoming, a person isn’t automatically a murder co-conspirator just because he was at an alleged murder scene.
But he theorized that Schlesinger did more than join Littauer on the mile-plus walk to Farley’s home that frigid night. The prosecutor said Schlesinger was part of an “agreement” made beforehand, to kill Farley.
Melinkovich pointed to the testimony that it was Schlesinger’s girlfriend who was “creeped out” by Farley, and that Schlesinger had told her they were going to kill Farley.
After Schlesinger returned home from Farley’s home that night, he showed his girlfriend a pistol he’d allegedly stolen from there, Melinkovich added.
Schlesinger’s defense attorney Rachel Weksler said the case is “fraught with questions that will have to be answered as we have access to more information, and will be fleshed out as we proceed in the matter.”
But a preliminary hearing isn’t the appropriate place for those investigations, Weksler added.
‘Forced Into A Situation’
Schlesinger in an undated letter filed in LaBuda’s court Feb. 20 pleaded with the judge to release him in time for his child’s scheduled birth of March 17.
“If I could prove to you, the state and it’s (sic) people that I was forced into a situation by Rowan I will,” wrote Schlesinger. “I would not (have done) anything to take me away from my family without my own life being threatened. I pray the evidence is found to show I was forced. I pray that I may testify against the man who threatened my life so I may raise my son to be a good man.”
Lanning acknowledged in court Tuesday that Schlesinger had said something during the course of the investigation, about Littauer threatening him.
The Low Bar
Littauer’s defense attorney Elisabeth Trefonas challenged Lanning’s testimony at her client’s hearing.
Lanning had testified that the case started Feb. 5, when an 18-year-old woman showed a Big Piney high school counselor text messages from “Rowan,” in which the man said he’d committed a felony and rid the world of a “pedophile.”
Trefonas pointed to how random the conversation was – launching cold after an unrelated discussion about seeing a chiropractor – and questioned whether the detective was sure Rowan Littauer had actually texted those words.
The detective couldn’t be sure, but had seen the same text conversation on Littauer’s phone, he answered.
Trefonas noted Littauer told investigators he felt “peer pressure” toward killing Farley, and she questioned whether Schlesinger could have been the source of that pressure.
LaBuda also sent Schlesinger's charge of felony theft, and Littauer's charge of mutilation of a dead body to the higher court. Those charges stem from the claims that Schlesinger stole Farley's gun, and Littauer riddled Farley's scalp with BBs from a BB pistol after the man was already dead on his own floor.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
