A Cheyenne man accused of supplying the heroin and cocaine that killed a young professional bull rider last year failed to return from a furlough a federal judge granted him this week to attend his mother’s funeral.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge William F. Downes issued an arrest warrant for 44-year-old Vernon F. Ellefson, Jr., of Cheyenne.

Ellefson and a group of other men are accused of supplying the drugs that killed bull rider Bryan John Guthrie last December and a Cheyenne woman last summer.

On Monday Downes ordered Ellefson to be released to the custody of his daughter Victoria Ellefson. She says her dad refused her request to go back to jail yesterday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office tells the Associated Press it opposed Ellefson’s overnight furlough request.