A 54-year-old Wheatland, Wyoming, man accused of molesting a younger boy when he was 14 has pleaded guilty and could receive a sentence of three years’ supervised probation if the judge accepts his plea agreement, court documents say.

Tyler James Boyd was originally charged in juvenile court, after a man who is six years younger came forward with claims and evidence that Boyd raped him repeatedly between 1984 and 1986, starting when the victim was about 8 and Boyd was 14.

A Dec. 11 order by District Court Judge Edward Buchanan says Boyd confessed in court Nov. 6, after pleading guilty to third-degree sexual assault — a lesser accusation than the second-degree charge he originally faced, though both are felonies.

Boyd has established a plea agreement with the state’s prosecutor, which says if he completes three years of supervised probation, completes psychosexual treatment at his own cost and fulfills other conditions, the conviction will be dropped.

The judge has ordered a pre-sentence investigation report. In Wyoming typically, judges schedule a sentencing hearing after or near that report’s completion. Then at sentencing, the judge will decide whether he’s going to accept the plea agreement and in this case, sentence Boyd to probation and withhold the conviction from his record as the agreement contemplates.

‘I Hope You Can Forgive Me’

An evidentiary affidavit written by Platte County Sheriff’s Investigator Troy Bartel details a text message exchange, which Bartel says is between Boyd and the victim.

“Can I ask you a couple questions?” asked the victim in a July 1, 2023, text to Boyd, according to the affidavit. The victim had obtained Boyd’s cellphone number from Boyd’s wife, who has since divorced him, according to court documents.

“What made you think it was appropriate to have your way with me?” asked the victim, according to the affidavit. “Do you understand what you did to me what you took from me.”

Boyd asked for a phone call but the victim demanded a text exchange, the document shows.

“You didn’t deserve that. i (sic) deeply regret that. i had two other men do this to me when i was younger,” texted Boyd, according to the affidavit. “And i guess i was following suit. i never did it again. And i hope you can forgive me.”

The victim thanked Boyd for admitting to it, in the written text exchange. He later asked, “was it power or pleasure…. Was it because it was fun or was it because you feel powerless and by doing that to me you felt powerful(?)”

Boyd said he didn’t know, but that he’d seek therapy to find the answer. He also said he felt horrible afterward, according to the affidavit. 

But this happened several times, the victim countered. “Did you feel horrible after all of them?”

“of course, and i feel horrible about it still,” Boyd texted back, according to the document, which adds a text in which Boyd said he’s asked the Lord for forgiveness for years.

In the affidavit’s account, Boyd said he suppressed that memory, as with many things he didn’t want to deal with in life, and that he regretted not talking to the victim “that day in town.”

“i (sic) am truly sorry.”

Splinters

In a Nov. 28, 2023, police interview in the victim’s home state, the victim said he met Boyd when his dad rented a house from the Boyds in the mid-1980s, says the affidavit.

Boyd would sexually assault him at two locations on the property for about two years, the man said, adding that Boyd would force his face down onto some split or raw wood and rape him.

The attack hurt, but the pain of the wood splinters against his face would take his mind off it, the man said, according to the affidavit.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.

Wyoming refunded $14.2 million in property taxes to state homeowners in 2024, about $6 million more than the statewide relief program doled out in 2023.

The Wyoming Department of Revenue recently reported the 2024 payment totals amounted to a 72% increase, according to WyoFile calculations.

In addition to the dollars refunded, the number of households receiving refunds also increased this year, jumping from 8,818 to 13,485. The 4,667 additional households that applied for and received property tax refunds this year amount to an uptick of about 52% compared to 2023, due in part to changes enacted by lawmakers.

Lawmakers should add $10.5 million to the refund program  through the state’s supplemental budget for next year’s operations, Department of Revenue Director Brenda Henson told the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee last week.

The two-year budget for the program amounted to $20 million. The supplemental budget request would bring the account back up to $16.2 million for 2024 tax year refunds.

“I think there’s always been a need for property tax relief,” Henson, who served as a county assessor for 16 years, told the panel. “The property tax refund program is the only needs-based, income-tested relief program that’s on the books today.

“We believe that that additional $10.5 million will be sufficient to fund refunds for [tax year] 2024.”

The refunds distributed this year were for property taxes paid in 2023. To qualify for a refund, members of a household had to apply and show they met certain income, tax and asset requirements and limits.

The state program is separate from additional county tax refund programs available in 2024 in Albany, Converse, Lincoln, Sublette and Teton counties.

Teton tops another list

Among Wyoming’s 23 counties, Teton County got the largest share of state refund money this year, receiving $2.9 million. The 630 refunds in Teton County averaged $4,666.

Laramie County households received the second largest share of the funds — $2.2 million altogether. The 2,245 refunds, the largest county total, averaged $997.

Park County’s average refund at $1,178 was the second highest after Teton County’s. Those funds went to 1,645 successful applicants.

That Teton County — where staggering incomes and immense property values skew statistics — would receive the largest share of tax breaks raised questions from one lawmaker. Federal data shows the average per capita income for a Teton County resident was $471,751 last year, the highest in the nation.

“Teton County is the highest average dollar refund,” Sen. Jim Anderson, (R-Casper) said at the appropriations meeting. “I would think that wouldn’t be so if [the program] was income-related.”

The tax relief program is designed for home-owning residents, Anderson observed, not for absentee landlords or owners of rental properties — types of housing that may be more common in Teton County’s resort and tourist-heavy communities than in other parts of Wyoming.

“This has to do with owner-occupied houses,” Anderson said of the refund program. “I was thinking that would decrease the Teton County [refunds], but it’s four times what everybody else is.”

Property values drove the Teton figure up, Henson said.

“Obviously, fair market value of residential properties in Teton County is significantly higher” than other counties, she said. “So that’s why that refund amount is higher.”

Teton County’s assessed value for residential land, improvements and personal property amounted to $3.7 billion in 2024, Henson told the Joint Revenue Committee last month. That figure for the entire state amounted to $10.4 billion.

Teton County’s assessed residential value is more than three times the value in Laramie County, the next highest, which is $1.2 billion for 2024, according to Henson’s presentation. Yet Teton County has a population of 23,167 compared to Laramie County’s 101,187.

Residential value makes up 86% of Teton County’s total assessed value, according to Department of Revenue information. Statewide, counties’ residential value averages 32% of their overall assessed value, state information shows.

The supplemental budget will be debated when the Legislature convenes early next year.

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