A young Cody man who was jailed for possessing sexually explicit videos of a teenager last year is back behind bars after he fled from his probation agent and got caught with a loaded handgun.

Earlier this month, Kenneth L. Crawford, 24, received a yearlong federal prison sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Crawford also continues to face charges in Park County, where prosecutors allege he violated his probation for sexual exploitation of children and failed to keep his sex offender registration information up to date.

Crawford’s legal trouble dates back to the summer of 2022, when a 17-year-old girl reportedly told a psychiatrist and authorities that Crawford, who was then 22, had sexually assaulted her.

Charging documents say that Crawford denied the girl’s accusations, saying all his encounters with her were consensual. An affidavit composed by a Cody police officer quotes Crawford as saying that the girl specifically sought to have sex with him — though he allegedly offered that the teen was “very [expletive] drunk” and “kind of shut down and started freaking out” during the encounter.

Ultimately, the Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not charge Crawford with sexual assault or accuse him of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with that September 2022 incident. However, prosecutors did charge Crawford for videotaping the 17-year-old during an earlier sexual encounter. Police reportedly found multiple sexually explicit videos of the teen on Crawford’s phone, violating Wyoming’s child pornography laws, which bar the possession or production of sexually explicit images of anyone under the age of 18.

Crawford ultimately pleaded guilty to a single felony count of sexual exploitation of children and received a yearlong jail sentence plus three years of supervised probation. He completed his jail time in October 2023, but this past March, he failed to show up for a scheduled meeting with his probation officer and became a wanted man. 

The Park County Sheriff’s Office learned that he’d moved out of a residence in rural Powell in late February. The landlord told authorities that he believed Crawford had moved to Pennsylvania, but as it turned out, he hadn’t gone that far: Acting on a citizen’s tip, Casper police spotted Crawford drinking a beer in a Walmart parking lot on May 23.

By that point, Crawford was wanted on five different warrants in Park County: three for failing to make payments on a few unrelated misdemeanors, one for allegedly violating his probation and another new felony charge of failing to keep his sex offender registration up to date.

Crawford reportedly explained to Casper police that he’d been unable to afford his monthly payments; court records show his debts include $4,165 in restitution for crashing a borrowed truck through a fence and then leaving the scene in April 2022.

Crawford told police he knew he’d be arrested for his failure to make payments, so he decided to go “on the run,” charging documents say.

As for his out-of-date sex offender registration, Crawford explained that “given his warrant [he] could not go to the sheriff’s office to register,” Casper Police Officer Tyler Kauffman wrote in an affidavit.

Following his May arrest at Walmart, Natrona County prosecutors filed a new felony charge of their own for Crawford’s alleged failure to register in Casper. However, his arrest had also drawn the attention of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as the convicted felon had been caught with a loaded Ruger P85 pistol in his waist band.

A grand jury indicted Crawford in July, and Natrona County dropped its case to let the federal prosecution move forward.

Crawford pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Casper a couple months later and was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl on Dec. 3. In addition to the 12 month and one day of prison time — which he’ll likely serve in either Colorado or Pennsylvania — Crawford had to forfeit his pistol to the federal government and pay $100.

After his prison term, Crawford will serve three years of supervised release, with conditions that include obeying the law, abstaining from alcohol, completing substance abuse, mental health and sex offender treatment programs, periodic polygraph testing and submitting to searches of his property and electronic devices at any time.

Meanwhile, all five warrants in Park County remain active.