A Cody man who was caught with roughly a quarter-million dollars worth of drugs last fall will serve eight to 10 years in prison.

Wayne W. Wright II, 59, received the sentence last week on a felony count of conspiracy to possess fentanyl with intent to deliver. Three other felony drug charges related to the incident were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

At a June 19 hearing in Park County District Court, Wright apologized to the community and to the court for his actions.

“I realize what I did was wrong, and I’m trying to do everything I can to improve my situation, my thinking and drug rehabilitation,” Wright said.

He and co-defendant Korrine A. McKay made a September trip to the Denver area to pick up drugs and were on their way back to Cody when they were pulled over by the Park County Sheriff’s Office and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. Inside Wright’s vehicle, authorities found 7,000 fentanyl pills and a pound of meth.

According to what DCI found and were told, some of the pills were McKay’s, while Wright had purchased the rest of the drugs; Wright allegedly intended to resell the meth, while some of the pills were supposed to be passed along to another dealer in Billings, DCI has said.

Wright has said he only assisted McKay — though she told authorities it was Wright who actually handled the transaction with their supplier in Aurora, Colorado.

It wasn’t Wright’s first brush with the law, as records show he was
involved with meth and a local drug ring in 2016 and 2017. Wright served a few months in jail and three years of supervised probation for those two drug-related felonies, but agreed to serve prison time in the wake of his September arrest.

At his June 19 sentencing hearing, District Court Judge Bill Simpson noted that Wright grew up in Cody.

“You had a good job, you had a future here,” Simpson said, “but you know that that was all taken from you because of your continued involvement in drug use and drug activity, including sales.”

The judge called it a shame.

“When you’re sober, when you’re clean, you can be a very engaging, decent individual: you contribute to the community, you're respected by people, you work hard, you have a good relationship with your previous employers,” Simpson said. “But you’ve lost a great deal.”

A lengthy investigation

The case stemmed in part from the earlier arrest of 37-year-old Kristofer M. Wright, who is Wayne Wright’s son and was McKay’s significant other. Authorities believed Kris Wright was “a major fentanyl distributor” in the area and that McKay began tapping into his suppliers after his May 2024 arrest in Billings.

DCI launched a months-long investigation — monitoring jail calls, conducting surveillance and interviewing sources — that culminated in the Sept. 23 traffic stop outside of Meeteetse.

Authorities found 2,000 fentanyl pills under McKay’s seat, which she admitted were hers, according to court records. The rest, she asserted to DCI, belonged to Wayne Wright; he reportedly intended to pass some along to Ed Higbie Jr. of Billings, who was one of the primary targets of the DCI investigation.

For his part, Wright testified that he was not involved in actually distributing the fentanyl.

McKay also clarified that 3,000 of the pills were “weak” ones that had previously been purchased and that they’d unsuccessfully tried to return during their Colorado trip, according to DCI.

Competing stories

Authorities found an apparent drug sales kit in Wright’s Ford — consisting of new baggies, scoops and digital scales — plus $7,000 that looked like it had recently been withdrawn from a bank. McKay told authorities that Wright had planned to use that cash to buy multiple pounds of meth, but his supplier “was out,” DCI Agent Shane Reece testified last year. According to McKay, “if we would have waited to arrest Mr. Wright at a later date, a larger quantity of methamphetamine would have been found,” Reece testified, indicating it was Wright’s drug of choice.

For his part, Wright and his attorney said last winter that the arrangement was for him to receive “a small amount of methamphetamine” as a reward for assisting McKay.

Last winter, Simpson ruled that the state government could keep the $7,000 and Wright’s 2017 Ford Focus because of the items’ connections to drug crimes.

Prison time
and pending cases

McKay received a six- to 10-year prison sentence for her role in the scheme. At her sentencing hearing in May, her family members said her life took a turn for the worse when she began dating Kris Wright. He recently pleaded guilty to felony drug and firearm charges in federal court in Billings and is set to be sentenced in September.

As for Higbie Jr., he was allegedly caught with another 3,500 fentanyl pills while driving through the Buffalo area in October. He’s currently out on bond, awaiting a change of plea hearing next month. A conspirator in Higbie’s vehicle — 42-year-old Alex Cervantes of Thornton, Colorado — served over seven months in jail and recently received three years of supervised probation for possessing fentanyl with intent to deliver.

As Judge Simpson pronounced Wayne Wright’s eight- to 10-year sentence last week, he said there was still time for the defendant to learn from his actions — encouraging Wright to do some good and to steer others away from drugs when he’s released from custody.

“You see, the destructive nature of drugs,” Simpson said. “There’s nothing good that ever comes with it, either using it or selling it or both. It’s just a lot of sadness, a lot of grief, a lot of disappointment.”

Wayne Wright, who’s been attending counseling sessions and completing certificates since his fall arrest, affirmed to the court that he’s ready to be serious about his recovery.