Inset: Wendy Coe (Park County Sheriff). Background: Park County Courthouse in Cody, Wyoming. (Google Maps).
A Wyoming mother accused of arranging to have her daughter’s boyfriend killed will avoid the possibility of a lengthy prison term after accepting a plea agreement.
Wendy Coe, 57, pleaded no contest Monday to attempted aggravated assault and battery. The agreement reduced the original charge of soliciting first-degree murder. According to Cowboy State Daily, the plea came nearly three years after Coe was caught allegedly seeking someone to kill her daughter’s boyfriend. In an affidavit obtained by the outlet, Coe reportedly told the would-be hit man—who was actually an undercover agent—that the man was addicted to drugs and had caused her daughter to become addicted as well.
During court proceedings, Coe’s attorneys argued that a jury should be allowed to consider whether the police sting operation entrapped her. Prosecutors disagreed, saying Coe had already decided she wanted her daughter’s boyfriend killed before she contacted the undercover agent. They argued that the plan did not emerge from her conversations with the agent.
Park County Deputy Attorney Larry Eichele said the undercover agent “merely followed her lead.”
Under the no-contest agreement, Eichele agreed that prosecutors would seek no more than five to eight years in prison. Coe’s attorneys may also request probation. After accepting the plea, Judge Bill Simpson ordered a presentence investigation. No sentencing date has been set.
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.
