Kenneth Crawford

Fresh off a stint in federal prison, a young sex offender is now heading into the state prison system to serve some more time behind bars.

At a June 3 hearing, a judge revoked the probation that 24-year-old Kenneth Levi Crawford had been serving for possessing sexually explicit images of a 17-year-old girl. District Court Judge Bill Simpson ordered Crawford to finish serving a two- to four-year sentence with the Wyoming Department of Corrections. It comes on the heels of a one-year sentence that Crawford just finished with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, for possessing a handgun while a convicted felon.

“I would hope maybe at some point you might be able to move forward without continued criminality,” Judge Simpson told the former Cody resident, “but that’s up to you, sir, and you’ll have some time to think about it at the Wyoming State Penitentiary as to how you’d like to direct your life.”

Crawford said he understood, adding that, “I believe that this has scared me straight.”

Lengthy background

His case began in the late summer of 2022, when a then-17-year-old girl told a psychiatrist and then Cody police that she’d been sexually assaulted by Crawford, who was 22 at the time. Crawford reportedly told police that the teen was “very [expletive] drunk”, but that the encounter was consensual and initiated by her.

The Park County Attorney’s Office did not charge Crawford with any wrongdoing for that incident, but did prosecute him for recording a video of an earlier sexual encounter with the teen. Because the girl was under the age of 18, creating and possessing the explicit images of the 17-year-old qualified as child pornography. As part of a plea deal, Crawford admitted to one felony count of sexual exploitation of children and received a yearlong jail sentence plus three years of supervised probation.

He was released in October 2023 and moved to rural Powell. However, in March 2024, Crawford left the area without informing his probation agent or updating his address with the sheriff’s office for the state’s sex offender registry. Park County authorities sought to revoke his probation and charged him with a new felony of failing to register.

Crawford wound up being arrested in May 2024 in Casper, where police found a loaded Ruger P85 handgun in his waistband. That drew the attention of federal authorities and, eventually, a one-year federal prison sentence.

Records indicate Crawford completed that time in early April and began three years of supervised release. However, he still had to answer to Park County’s still-pending charges and was arrested in Cody on April 17.

‘This gentleman cannot be released’

At Crawford’s initial appearance in Park County Circuit Court on April 18, then-Deputy County Prosecuting Attorney Laura Newton made an impassioned request for a high bond.

“I cannot stress to you how upsetting this is,” Newton told Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah, calling Crawford “an incredible danger to women, or maybe even men.”

“This gentleman cannot be released from jail. Please, judge,” Newton said, describing $250,000 cash as a minimum bond amount.

“I am afraid for people,” Newton added, also requesting “every restriction I can think of” in the event he made bail.

The prosecutor later noted that Crawford could be seen yawning on the video feed from the jail and asserted it signaled he wasn’t worried.

“It’s not that I’m not worried, ma’am, I’m sorry. I just don’t know what else to do,” Crawford responded. “Because … you’re trying to make me out to be a monster.”

When it was his turn to offer a bond recommendation, Crawford said he thought the state’s suggestion was “perfectly fine.”

“Whether it’s $1 or a million dollars, I’m not getting out, your honor,” he told Darrah, and the judge adopted Newton’s $250,000 figure.

Plea deal

Crawford’s court-appointed attorney, Tim Blatt, and the county attorney’s office soon struck the deal that was finalized on Tuesday. In exchange for Crawford’s admission that he violated his probation and his agreement to serve the prison time, Park County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Skoric dropped the felony charge of failing to register.

Given that he’s already served over a year in jail on the exploitation charge, Crawford may only serve a matter of months with the Wyoming Department of Corrections before being released to parole and continued federal oversight.

Simpson encouraged the defendant to stay straight and become a contributing member of society upon his release, adding that, “the best way to do that is not commit any more crimes.”