Ethan Tirrell

A Lovell man is facing multiple criminal charges after he allegedly covered his pregnant girlfriend’s face with a pillow, punched and strangled her during a December altercation at her Powell home.

Ethan W. Tirrell, 24, is charged with felony counts of causing bodily injury to a pregnant woman and strangulation of a household member. He pleaded not guilty to the allegations last week, during a Feb. 27 arraignment hearing in Park County District Court in Cody.

The woman told police she fled her Absaroka Street home on the night of the Dec. 1 incident and “ran all the way to the hospital from her house without shoes or a coat,” court records say. Cold and out of breath, she arrived at Powell Valley Hospital around 10:30 p.m. and collapsed on the floor of the emergency department.

When Powell police officers arrived at the hospital, they observed that the woman — who was hyperventilating and crying — had a swollen lip and forehead, along with red marks and broken blood vessels on her neck. She received treatment and was released from the hospital later that night, charging documents indicate.

Tirrell told police that he had only tried to restrain his girlfriend after she hit and bit him. He was located and arrested in mid-January and has been held in the Park County Detention Center since, with bond set at a combined total of $16,500.

Court records say Tirrell battered the woman during a previous pregnancy, in October 2018. In that altercation in Lovell, Tirrell tackled and pinned her to the ground — putting his weight on top of the then-six-month pregnant woman — as she attempted to move out, charging documents say. Tirrell is currently serving probation for that offense, but Big Horn County prosecutors are seeking to revoke it, based in part on the new allegations.

The woman told Powell police that the Dec. 1 incident began after she hid Tirrell’s medication for ADHD, telling officers that he was abusing it.

In the altercation that ensued, the woman said Tirrell pinned her against the wall, put his hand over her mouth and ultimately put a pillow over her face; she reported punching and biting him in effort to get free.

“They then fell to the floor and Tirrell continued to press the pillow over [her] face. [The woman] said that she began to lose her breath and was struggling to breathe while this was occurring,” Officer Caleb Schmidt wrote of the woman’s account in a sworn affidavit.

Tirrell punched her face through the pillow, Schmidt’s affidavit says, and “at one point, Tirrell reached under the pillow and choked her by wrapping his hand around her throat because she would not tell him where the pills were at.”

The woman eventually lost consciousness.

In a phone conversation with police, Tirrell told the story differently, according to Schmidt’s recounting. Tirrell reported that he had attempted to hold his girlfriend down after she hit him and that they ended up on the floor after a bed broke.

“Tirrell was still attempting to hold [the woman] down when she began to hit the back of her head against the wall, which caused her to lose consciousness” and go into a seizure, Schmidt wrote of Tirrell’s account.

The altercation continued when she woke up and the woman said she fled when Tirrell went to pick up their crying child.

Tirrell refused to meet with police in person after the incident, but the Park County Attorney’s Office filed charges on Dec. 3 and obtained a warrant for his arrest. Lovell police caught up with and arrested Tirrell on Jan. 17.

He wound up being charged with an additional misdemeanor count of using a controlled substance after a urine sample he provided at the Powell police station preliminarily tested positive for meth; he allegedly admitted to using the drug about two days earlier.

Tirrell has been seeking to be released on bond since his arrest, but said he’s unable to come up with the more than $15,000 he needs.

In a Feb. 9 letter to District Court Judge Bill Simpson, Tirrell asked for bail to be lowered. He said he’s not a flight risk, as his entire family is in the area.

Further, “I’m not a threat to society and I will have [absolutely] no contact with my victim,” he wrote. “I will abide all laws and be on my best behavior.”

If released, Tirrell said he would work to get a job, to strengthen his relationships with his family and higher power and “show continued progress in my life and lifestyle.”

Judge Simpson has yet to rule on Tirrell’s request.

A trial in Park County is tentatively set for June 17.