54-Year-Old Wyoming Man Confesses To Molesting Boy 40 Years Ago

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.