Accused of helping an 18-year-old suspected shooter hide from the law, a Gillette man and woman each face up to three years in prison on accessory charges.
Terry Lee Harrell, 18, and Odessa Maughan, 20, were charged Monday with accessory after the fact to attempted second-degree murder in Gillette Circuit Court. The charge is punishable by up to three years in prison and $3,000 in fines.
An evidentiary affidavit filed by Campbell County Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Cox says the agency had an anonymous caller on the phone Saturday at 4:50 p.m., discussing the 18-year-old fugitive Kamren Crousore's possible whereabouts.
Crousore is the suspect in a March 4 shooting that left 19-year-old Preston Hedlund with an abdominal wound and at least one surgery, court documents say. He vanished after the shooting – as did a 9 mm pistol – but was found in a closet in his mother’s home on Echeta Road Saturday.
While deputies were still searching for Crousore, the caller said four people had just arrived at Crousore’s mother’s home in a tan or gold-colored Ford Taurus, and that one of the four people who got out of the vehicle was Crousore, says Cox’s affidavit.
Deputies went to the neighborhood and watched the home from a distance. They noticed the Taurus parked in front of the home, says the affidavit.
Three people left the home, got in the car and drove away, eastbound onto Echeta. Cox and another deputy got behind the vehicle and ran its Wyoming plates, noticing that the plate number was registered to a green, not gold Taurus, says the document.
Meanwhile, another deputy and corporal kept their eyes on Crousore’s mother’s home.
Just So You Know …
The affidavit says Cox and the deputy he was with made contact with Maughan, who was driving the Taurus, and her passenger, Harrell, around the Maverik gas station. The Taurus contained a third occupant, a 10-year-old boy, says the affidavit.
The document relates that Maughan said she had no idea where Crousore was and hadn’t spoken to him.
“I wouldn’t speak to him, and he knows that,” said Maughan, according to the document.
A deputy asked her how many people had arrived at the home earlier, and she said just the three of them, reportedly.
Deputies next spoke with Harrell, who said he hadn’t spoken with Crousore since before the shooting, and the only place he knew Crousore might be was the garage of Savannah Carstens, a Gillette woman, Cox wrote. Another affidavit, alleging second-degree murder against Crousore, says Crousore visited a music recording studio in Carstens’ garage.
In a case that doesn’t show an apparent link to Crousore’s, Carstens was charged with drug possession Monday.
Deputies explained to Maughan and Harrell that if they were found helping Crousore and lying about his whereabouts, they could be charged with felonies, Cox wrote.
“They said they understood and didn’t know where he is or would be,” he added. The deputies let the pair drive away.
Closet
Then the deputies circled back to Crousore’s mother’s home.
Cpl. Kyle Borgialli contacted the mother, who said no one should be at her home, and who gave consent for deputies to search the home, says the affidavit.
A juvenile in the home said there shouldn’t be anyone there, Cox added in the document.
When deputies searched, the affidavit says, they found Crousore – who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 120 pounds – in a closet in the master bedroom behind some clothes.
Deputies arrested Crousore without incident, and later arrested Maughan and Harrell as well.
The affidavit says two agents had “maintained constant surveillance on the home and had not seen anyone exit or enter the home” after Maughan and Harrell left with just three people in their vehicle.
The Hospital Visit
Crousore’s affidavit says Hedlund appeared at the Campbell County Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound in his abdomen on March 4. His mother called Gillette Police Department to ask if they knew about a shooting, and they hadn’t yet heard of one. The police called the hospital to ask whether they had a gunshot victim, and the hospital confirmed it was treating a gunshot victim, says a separate affidavit by Campbell County Sheriff’s Cpl. Josh Knittel.
Sheriff’s deputies learned of the shooting at about 2:20 p.m. March 4, when Crousore’s mother reported a shooting had happened at her home while she wasn’t there.
The affidavit says Hedlund had asked Carstens to give him a ride to Crousore’s home on Echeta so he could “settle some beef” with Crousore, the affidavit says.
Carstens stayed in her vehicle as Hedlund knocked and entered. Crousore exited after some time, stood on the front porch, looked around and reentered his home, after which Carstens heard “boom-boom-boom,” she told investigators.
Hedlund rushed from the home holding his bottom and told Carstens to take him to the hospital. She did. Investigators later documented the blood on the interior of her car, says the document.
The Eyewitness
Investigators interviewed an eyewitness to the shooting on March 5.
The man said Crousore had found himself in a “self-defense scenario, but not life or death and no reason to grab no gun,” the affidavit relates.
Hedlund dropped Crousore and the eyewitness off at Crousore’s mother’s home on Tuesday. The eyewitness played video games, while Crousore injected methamphetamine, says the document.
Hedlund came back to Crousore’s home about 30 minutes after Crousore injected the meth, and the pair got into an argument that involved Hedlund’s claim that he could fight anyone, Knittel wrote.
Crousore told Hedlund to leave his home. Hedlund refused to leave until Crousore returned Hedlund’s pistols to him.
The affidavit indicates these guns, both 9 mm in caliber with one brown and one purple, were in fact stolen from Hedlund’s mother. One person told law enforcement the men planned to sell them.
A fight followed. Crousore slapped Hedlund’s face. Hedlund picked Crousore up and body-slammed him, onto his head on the ground, the eyewitness told Knittel, according to the affidavit.
Hedlund struck Crousore in the face twice.
“All right, cool, you beat my ass in my own house, now leave,” said Crousore, according to the document.
Again, Hedlund demanded the guns back.
Crousore retrieved the purple gun from the table, loaded it, racked it, pointed it at Hedlund’s face and said “get the f*** out,” the affidavit relates.
Hedlund just stared. Crousore struck him in the face with the gun, the eyewitness told Knittel.
Medical staff had later noted a contusion to Hedlund’s forehead, the corporal noted.
Boom
Hedlund grabbed Crousore’s arms and tried pushing him; Crousore pointed the gun at Hedlund’s head and pulled the trigger, the affidavit says.
Crousore missed, but the eyewitness didn’t know that at first. He told law enforcement, “I thought I just watched my best friend get shot in the head.”
Hedlund kept pushing Crousore to get him away. Crousore fell over a step into the living room area, and Hedlund tumbled down as well, the document indicates.
Crousore fired again, and this time struck Hedlund in the stomach, Knittel wrote.
Hedlund screamed. He stood, shouted the word “Hospital” and fled the home.
Crousore started “freaking… out,” the eyewitness explained during his law enforcement interview. Crousore kept saying “what do I do, I can’t believe I just did that – what am I going to do?” reportedly. Then he put the purple gun in the floor vent of the kitchen, and called a friend for a ride, Knittel wrote.
Maughan gave both men a ride away from the home and dropped them off in different locations, the eyewitness recalled.
Crousore’s preliminary hearing is set for March 20 in Gillette Circuit Court.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
