Inset: Wendy Coe (Park County Sheriff). Background: Park County Courthouse in Cody, Wyo. (Google Maps).
A Wyoming woman who tried to have her daughter’s boyfriend killed will avoid a long prison sentence after entering a plea.
Wendy Coe, 57, pleaded no contest to attempted aggravated assault and battery on Monday, an agreement that downgraded a charge of soliciting first-degree murder. According to reporting by local news outlet Cowboy State Daily, the plea came almost three years after Coe was caught trying to find someone to kill her daughter’s boyfriend. In an affidavit obtained by the outlet, Coe told the would-be hit man, who was actually an undercover agent, that her daughter’s boyfriend was a drug addict who got her daughter addicted as well.
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According to the affidavit, an unnamed person contacted the Cody Police Department to tell them that Coe had been trying to find someone to kill her daughter’s boyfriend for about two weeks. The department kicked off its investigation, and on Dec. 20, 2023, an agent from the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation posed as a potential hit man and made contact with Coe.
The same day, Coe told the agent to come to the store where she worked and go to the back, where there were no cameras that could capture their conversation. In their recorded conversation, the agent proposed a price of $10,000 for the hit. Coe told the agent that she believed that was fair, but she could not pay it right away.
While discussing possible methods, Coe said the boyfriend was currently using drugs. The agent suggested, “So, if it looked like a drug deal gone bad and he was shot or something like that, is that out of the ordinary?” Coe responded, “That’s not out of the ordinary.”
Coe also suggested that someone provide the boyfriend with enough drugs to kill him, telling the agent, “Or if he OD’d (overdosed). He OD’d up in the South Fork it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.”
The agent reminded Coe that someone could survive an overdose. He then told her that he would rather shoot the boyfriend. Coe responded, “Works for me.” She agreed to pay $200 to $300 to cover the purchase of a gun, but the agent decided he could have a friend cover that cost. He requested that Coe provide photos of the boyfriend as well as his address and information about his vehicle and where he works.
Coe and the agent agreed to meet the next day. On Dec. 21, 2023, Coe texted the agent and said she could not afford to pay the $10,000 they discussed. She said she would be able to provide some money after the new year and more after she got a raise the following spring. When the agent said he could possibly carry out the killing for a lower price, Coe turned down the offer and said there was “too much risk involved.”
Coe was arrested the same day and booked into the Park County Jail.
Throughout her court hearings, Coe’s defense attorneys attempted to argue that a jury should be able to consider that law enforcement entrapped her with their sting operation. The prosecution rejected that, pointing out that Coe’s intention to have her daughter’s boyfriend killed began before she spoke to the undercover agent; it did not come about as a result of her conversations with the agent.
Park County Deputy Attorney Larry Eichele said the agent “merely followed her lead.”
As part of Coe’s no-contest plea, Eichele agreed that the state would not seek a sentence of more than five to eight years in prison. Coe’s defense can also argue for probation. After accepting the plea, Judge Bill Simpson ordered a presentence investigation into Coe ahead of sentencing. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
The post ‘Works for me’: Mother who allegedly plotted to have her daughter’s boyfriend killed for getting her child addicted to drugs takes plea deal first appeared on Law & Crime.
