For at least one of the two teens accused in the bow-and-arrow ambush death of a 23-year-old Big Piney, Wyoming, man, the death penalty is no longer on the table.
Orion Schlesinger, 18, pleaded “not guilty” and ”not guilty by reason of mental illness” at his Thursday arraignment in Sublette County District Court.
He’s accused of conspiring to commit first-degree murder in the death of Dakota Farley, who was killed when an arrow pierced through his chest’s vital organs Feb 2. He’s also charged with felony theft on the claim that he stole Farley’s gun after the act.
Schlessinger acknowledged District Court Judge McKay’s advisements of his rights and other matters in a voice barely above a whisper.
The case prosecutor announced that he’s no longer seeking the death penalty for Schlesinger. A life sentence would apply if Schlesinger is convicted of the charge he faces.
“I am respectfully notifying the court and counsel for the defendant that the state will not be seeking to have Mr. Schlesinger executed in this matter,” Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said.
Wyoming courts hold lengthy, two-part trials in death penalty cases.
A jury first sits through the evidence pertaining to whether the defendant is guilty of murder, and then convicts or acquits him. Then the jury sits through a crossfire of evidence surrounding aggravating and mitigating factors to decide if the state should execute the defendant.
“Given the circumstances, it appears that such a result (a death finding) from a jury is not likely,” said Melinkovich.
Defender Squeeze
Another factor in the prosecutor’s decision is an ongoing public defender shortage and strain throughout Wyoming.
After taking a roster of volunteers for appointments, judges in the northeast corner of the state have been appointing private attorneys to represent misdemeanor-level indigent defendants. The U.S. Constitution promises a right to be represented by defense counsel.
The Gillette Public Defender’s Office is down to two attorneys from its full staffing level of seven, Wyoming State Public Defender Brandon Booth told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.
There are shortages throughout the state as well, Booth added.
Death penalty cases require several man-hours and a high level of work from defense attorneys.
“The state seeking the death penalty results in additional requirements upon that office and pulls those limited resources from indigent defendants across our great state,” said Melinkovich at the hearing, adding that he didn’t want to shirk his duties as a “minister of justice.”
The Other Teen
Rowan Littauer, 19, is accused alongside Schlesinger with first-degree murder and mutilation of a dead body.
Court documents say the two men, after a personal grievance with Farley, walked more than a mile to his house the night of Feb. 1, walked into his home and shot him as he emerged from a back room.
Littauer is accused of using the compound bow, while Schlesinger is accused of helping to hatch the plan.
Littauer’s murder charge carries a potential penalty of death or life in prison. His arraignment is set for April 7.
As to whether Melinkovich is still seeking the death penalty for Littauer, he’s not ready to say yet.
“I do intend to notify the court of my decision at that point (the arraignment), but I have not yet made that decision,” Melinkovich told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.
The Narrative
Littauer’s mutilation charge is punishable by five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
An evidentiary affidavit in the case compiled by Sublette County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Travis Lanning says investigators learned of Farley’s death when someone reported receiving a text from Littauer saying he’d “shot Dakota with a bow and two arrows.”
Sublette County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Tollison met with Littauer, who admitted he’d “shot a man with a bow and two arrows … in the arm and the head,” and that Schlesinger was with him at the time, the document says.
Littauer also showed deputies on a map application on his cellphone where Farley’s home was, which was also the death scene, Lanning wrote.
Lanning and other deputies and detectives converged on the home and found Farley lying face-down in the living room, the right side of his face pressed against the carpet with dried blood beneath it, says the document.
Lanning noticed eight wounds on Farley’s scalp that looked like BB punctures, but weren’t bloodied, indicating they happened post-mortem, the detective wrote.
Compound Bow
Citing interviews with people familiar with the suspects, the affidavit says the pair were friends and made a plan the evening of Feb. 1 to go to Farley’s home and kill him.
Schlesinger went to Littauer’s home, where Littauer gathered a compound bow, broadhead-tipped arrows and a BB gun, the affidavit says.
They then walked the 1.4 miles to Farley’s home, it adds.
They entered the home, found Farley standing in his living room, and Littauer shot his compound bow and broadhead-tipped arrows through Farley’s right arm and chest, “resulting in his nearly-instantaneous death,” Lanning wrote.
At some point, Schlesinger “came to possess a purple and grey .22-caliber revolver” Farley had owned, the affidavit says.
Lanning wrote that Littauer was the one who shot eight BBs into Farley’s scalp.
When investigators searched Littauer’s home, they found a compound bow, black arrows, broadhead arrow tips and a BB gun pistol, says the affidavit.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
