Latest news with #entrapment
Daily Mail
27-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Undercover agent 'egged on mom who wanted to take out hit on daughter's deadbeat boyfriend'
A Wyoming woman who hired an undercover agent posing as a hitman to take out her daughter's boyfriend claims the law enforcement officer 'entrapped' her. Wendy Dawn Coe, 56, will appear before a jury in rural Park County next month on trial for one count of felony solicitation to commit murder in the first degree. Coe began to solicit potential hitmen in 2023 to kill her daughter's boyfriend, an affidavit obtained by Cowboy State Daily alleges. An undercover agent with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation pretended to accept the job and agreed to meet outside her workplace on December 20. Coe told the agent the boyfriend, identified only in court documents by the initials CN, was 'fully in control' of her daughter and 'treats her like crap', the affidavit says. She also claimed that CN would get her daughter 'back on drugs' whenever he came into money. She provided the agent with CN's work address and suggested the murder be staged as an overdose, claiming such circumstances would not appear 'out of the ordinary', prosecutors allege. Her defense has now alleged that Coe was entrapped by the undercover officer. Coe's attorney Sam Krone put the state of Wyoming 'on notice' Thursday, saying that he plans to assert a defense of entrapment at the upcoming trial. 'The evidence in this case demonstrates that the Defendant was entrapped by law enforcement, as the government induced the commission of the alleged crime and the defendant lacked predisposition to engage in the criminal conduct,' Krone wrote in court documents obtained by the newspaper. Under Wyoming law, the defense of entrapment requires a defendant prove the government induced the crime and the defendant lacked the predisposition to commit the crime. The attorney is also seeking to to delay the start of the trial and has requested a change of venue, alleging news coverage of the case in the town of just 10,200 people has been widespread and is 'prejudicial'. A judicial ruling on Krone's request has not yet surfaced. Daily Mail has approached the defense attorney for comment. Cody police first launched an investigation into Coe in December 2023 after receiving reports she had 'solicited several people' to murder CN. The force arranged for an undercover agent to call Coe on a recorded line on December 20 and set up an in-person meeting. She told him to visit the store where she worked and said they would 'walk out back' to discuss the job in further detail, Cowboy State Daily reports. The agent asked if the store was under surveillance, with Coe allegedly claiming there were some in the store but not behind the building. The pair met behind the store. The agent, in an audio recording of the encounter, is heard asking Coe: 'First off, how much are you willing … like 10 grand, is that fair?' She reportedly told him the $10,000 price was 'fair' but admitted she did not have the funds readily available. He then asked if the job was 'time sensitive', to which Coe said 'no' but admitted: 'I just want him gone'. Coe ultimately did not strike a deal with the agent, texting him the next day: 'I can't afford what we discussed.' He suggested he could do the job for a lesser amount, but Coe refused, reportedly claiming there was 'too much risk involved.' She was arrested later that day and booked into the Park County Detention Center. CN, the man allegedly targeted in the murder-for-hire scheme, was arrested just days after Coe's arrest. He was taken into custody on unrelated charges of driving while impaired, shoplifting and drug possession, the Powell Tribune and SVI News reported at the time. CN was allegedly caught trying to steal a $78 beef roast and $137 worth of products from the local Walmart. He appeared drunk and impaired while driving and also was in possession of meth, charging documents obtained by the news outlets alleged. CN was also wanted in connection to other criminal cases in Oregon. Coe, as part of her bond conditions, is forbidden from having any contact with her daughter and her partner.
Irish Times
25-06-2025
- Irish Times
Gardaí accused in Seanad of ‘concealing facts' from judge in Evan Fitzgerald case
Gardaí involved in the case of Evan Fitzgerald , who took his own life in a Carlow shopping centre, were accused of 'concealing' the 'true facts' from a judge when he was deciding whether to grant bail. Undercover gardaí supplied guns and ammunition to Mr Fitzgerald – who was then charged with possession of the firearms. While awaiting trial on the firearms charges, Mr Fitzgerald (22), from Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, stole another weapon from a neighbour and fired shots in the shopping centre before turning that gun on himself . Using Seanad privilege, Independent Senator Michael McDowell outlined details of Mr Fitzgerald's case as he accused undercover gardaí, who supplied the 22-year-old with seized weapons, of 'entrapment'. READ MORE Raising the issue for the second time in the Seanad he demanded 'an immediate investigation and full accountability from the Commissioner down' over how sworn evidence could be given to a District Court judge 'which was misleading and left him in the dark'. He said Mr Fitzgerald sought firearms on 'the proton email aspect of the dark web. Apparently Interpol or some other international agency alerted the Garda to this inquiry'. Gardaí did a deal with him 'in which they persuaded him to take an automatic rifle and a semi-automatic pistol for a price of €2,700″. When they arranged a meeting 'Mr Fitzgerald came with two childhood friends, and they took delivery of the firearms in one of his friend's cars. 'The car proceeded some distance away to another place, where it was intercepted by members of An Garda Síochána, who smashed the windows, dragged out the occupants and made an arrest.' The weapons they bought 'had been disabled, were not capable of discharge and were taken from the Garda's own reservoir of seized firearms'. He said gardaí initially opposed bail when the matter came before the District Court. 'When bail on certain conditions was eventually granted, Judge Desmond Zaidan, who said the three men 'appeared to him to be young and naive', asked: 'When you say the dark web, do you have any idea who was selling them on the dark web?' 'A garda told him in sworn evidence: 'that is an ongoing investigation. At this stage I wouldn't want to ...', and the judge said: 'compromise the trial', and the garda said: 'That is an ongoing investigation on the dark web.'' Mr McDowell said gardaí had informed the court the three wanted the weapons to shoot them in the woods but 'gardaí wanted to deprive them of bail, which meant being imprisoned pending trial'. Calling for an immediate investigation and 'full accountability', Mr McDowell said the judge was left in the dark as were the three accused who were prohibited from communicating with each other for a whole year. 'In that dark despairing year, Evan Fitzgerald decided to take his own life by shooting himself with a neighbour's shotgun. That is what happened, and I am demanding that there is accountability.' The former attorney general and minister for justice said 'we cannot tolerate untruths being told to an Irish District Court judge and we certainly cannot allow a situation where the judicial process is deployed on a false basis to deprive people of their liberty and to conceal from members of the judiciary the true facts when they are determining whether someone should be granted bail.' He said 'we should be very conscious in this House of the nature of the powers we are conferring on An Garda Síochána and the seriousness of any abuse of those powers'. Mr McDowell was speaking during a debate on the extension of counter-terrorism and anti-crime gang emergency powers under the Offences Against the State Act and the Criminal Justice Act.
