Man with five open domestic violence and harassment cases gets felony charge after alleged stalking incident

BLACKFOOT — A 31-year-old man has been charged with a felony following a woman’s report that he had been stalking her and her child at a baseball field, one day after he had been arrested for similar allegations.

Tyrel Keppner is charged with felonies for first-degree stalking and a no-contact order violation.

Other than these charges, Keppner also has five separate active cases regarding similar allegations of stalking, and violating domestic violence no-contact orders.

Since Jan. 16, Keppner has been charged with misdemeanors for two counts of violation of a no-contact order, one count of use of a telephone to annoy, harass, or intimidate, and three counts of violating a domestic violence protection order. According to court documents, the woman and her child have a civil protection order against Keppner from Jan. 28, and a no-contact order against him issued on Monday morning.

The most recent case reportedly also occurred on Monday around 8:40 p.m., when Keppner called 911, reporting that he was being followed by a friend of the victim.

Police reports say the victim and her child were at the baseball field on Airport Road when a friend of the victim left the baseball game early and, as he was leaving the parking lot, he saw Keppner driving by.

The friend stated that he “intentionally took a different way home than he normally would to avoid (Keppner).” The friend said that Keppner kept “popping up” near him, and eventually lost him before returning home.

Keppner then reportedly called the police and reported that the victim’s friend was following him.

While at the baseball game, the victim says she saw Keppner drive through the parking lot near them multiple times, then leave and return.

According to court documents, Keppner is required to stay at least 300 feet from both victims. The officer measured the distance from where the woman stated the truck was to where the woman and her child were and found that the truck was 187 feet from the child and 297 feet from the woman.

Witnesses told police they had also recognized Keppner’s truck driving around the baseball field parking lot. Later, another officer reported that he had been off-duty at the baseball field and saw Keppner driving around the parking lot.

While speaking with the woman, the officer says she was “visibly scared and was shaking at times.”

The woman then reportedly received a text from an unknown number, which police believe was from Keppner. The text called her a “nasty woman” and accused her of other derogatory things.

The woman told police that Keppner will “often use different apps to text her and that (he) will pretend to be his sister or mother and say horrible things to her.” According to police, the text references the victim’s children and was written to sound as if it were coming from one of Keppner’s relatives.

Officers found Keppner at the Super 8 in Blackfoot, where he denied driving through the baseball field’s parking lot. When questioned about the text message the victim received, he claimed that one of his relatives probably sent it.

Officers looked through Keppner’s phone and did not find the text, but said, “there are different apps and websites that can be used to send a text from a different number.”

Eventually, officers told Keppner he was under arrest for stalking and tried to place him in restraints, but Keppner reportedly “attempted to pull away and stiffened his arms.”

“Due to (Keppner’s) actions, the restraints were placed more tightly than intended,” the officer says in the report. Once outside the motel, Keppner reportedly “became angry” with officers and stated that they were harassing him.

Officers went back into the hotel to clear out Keppner’s belongings, where they reportedly found a “self-made pornographic video” open in a tab on Keppner’s laptop, and another tab open to a website to purchase a handgun.

After obtaining consent to go through the rest of Keppner’s laptop, they reportedly found several emails sent to the victim on Saturday and Sunday. Officers also searched his phone, where they reportedly found notes describing sexual violence against the victim.

There was also an alleged search for the friend of the victim that Keppner had accused of following him earlier that day. Keppner was arrested and booked into the Bingham County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

He was later placed on pretrial supervision, subject to the conditions that he report to pretrial release, receive no new criminal charges, remain in the county, and submit to electronic monitoring.

Keppner is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing on June 25. If convicted in this case, he could face up to ten years in prison.

Keppner does not currently have a defense attorney assigned or hired to this or his last recent case. We have reached out to the Bingham County Public Defender’s office for clarification and comment, and will update if we hear back.

Though Keppner has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.