A 22-year-old Riverton man accused of stabbing a family member and the pit bull that tried to defend him could face up to 23 years in prison if convicted.
Caron McKelab Bell is scheduled for a Jan. 22 arraignment in Fremont County District Court.
He was charged Dec. 23, hours after he became a stabbing suspect and the subject of a manhunt, with:
- Two counts of aggravated assault (each punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines)
- One count of cruelty to animals (up to two years in prison and $5,000 in fines)
- Misdemeanor property destruction (up to six months in jail and $750 in fines)
- Criminal trespass (up to six months in jail and $750).
An evidentiary affidavit Fremont County Sheriff’s Detective Sara Lowe filed in the case Dec. 23 says her fellow deputy Ryan Tyler was giving a man a ride from SageWest Health Care in Riverton, to a home in the town at about 1:28 a.m.
A 43-year-old woman whom Tyler “recognized from previous law enforcement encounters” rushed from the house entirely covered in blood, pulled open the driver’s door of Tyler’s patrol vehicle, and screamed that someone had stabbed her 47-year-old husband, says the affidavit.
Into The Bloody Bathroom
Tyler entered the home and found the 47-year-old man sitting on the floor of the blood-smeared bathroom, naked and covered in blood near a shattered mirror, the document says.
The woman said her son, Bell, had stabbed her husband, Lowe wrote.
Tyler noticed a “deep laceration” about 1.5 inches long on the man’s upper right arm, actively bleeding, says the document, adding that the deputy pulled gauze from his medical bag and applied pressure to the wound.
The man was “highly intoxicated and potentially going into shock,” wrote Lowe, and he “could only tell Deputy Tyler that Bell had stabbed him” but he didn’t know what weapon had pierced him.
The wife was also “highly intoxicated,” Lowe recounted. The woman reportedly said her son, Bell, had followed her into the bathroom and started “throwing her around,” breaking the bathroom mirror.
When the husband intervened, Bell beat him up and stabbed him with what the wife believed was a piece of broken mirror, the document says.
Bell then fled on foot, the woman reportedly added.
Enter, Pit Bull
During these interviews, a pit bull entered the bathroom.
Tyler noticed the dog had a deep laceration between its eyes, about a half-inch long, the affidavit says.
The woman said the dog had been trying to defend her husband.
Emergency medical personnel took the man to the Riverton hospital; he was later air-lifted “to an unknown location,” wrote Lowe in her summary.
Meanwhile Tyler, Deputy Rhett Rogge and multiple Riverton Police Department officers canvassed the area, searching for Bell. A 24-year-old man hunkered in a “seemingly broken-down vehicle” gestured to a home across the street from the vehicle, the affidavit says.
Tyler, Rogge, and the officers entered the abandoned home — which Lowe alleges Bell didn’t have permission to occupy — and found Bell sleeping in a closet, reportedly.
The affidavit says Tyler told Bell to stand up, face the wall and place his hands behind his back, as he was under arrest.
“Bell acted as though he had no idea what Deputy Tyler was talking about” when he asked of the stabbing, Lowe wrote.
But earlier that evening, Tyler, who reportedly knows Bell’s appearance well, saw him in the home’s living room, related Lowe.
The document says Tyler noted blood on Bell’s right hand, shoes, pants, undershirt and sweatshirt.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
