Judge Won’t Overturn Wyoming’s First Fentanyl Manslaughter Conviction

A Greybull man convicted of selling the fentanyl-laced pills that led to a 25-year-old’s overdose death will remain in prison after a judge on Tuesday ruled against overturning his manslaughter conviction.

Park County District Judge Bill Simpson rejected Anthony Fuentes’ argument that his lawyer didn’t represent him adequately.

Fuentes will appeal the decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court, as part of the multi-tiered appeals process, his attorney H. Michael Bennett confirmed Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.

Fuentes, 38, is serving a 15-to 20-year sentence for manslaughter after entering an Alford plea last August. That’s a form of a guilty plea in which a person doesn’t confess to the crime but accepts the conviction.

The case stems back to January 2023 when Jordan Jackson, 25, was found dead in his Cody apartment after ingesting half of a counterfeit oxycodone pill, sold by Fuentes, that was later determined to be laced with fentanyl, according to court documents.

As part of this same crime, Fuentes was also charged with four drug-related felonies in neighboring Big Horn County, where the drugs were sold. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to between three and five years in prison.  

Fuentes was the first person in Wyoming to be convicted for manslaughter for selling fentanyl-laced drugs.

He has since argued, however, that his attorney Christina Cherni, who defended him in both cases, led him astray by advising him to accept the plea deal for manslaughter.

In his capacity as Fuentes’ appeals attorney, Bennett now argues the charge of manslaughter under Wyoming law cannot stem from a drug crime.

Simpson, however, disagreed that Fuentes was misled in denying his motion, determining that Cherni had provided adequate counsel and that Fuentes received a fair sentence for a plea he had voluntarily agreed to.

“Potentially, there was a much more significant sentence that could have been imposed had he been found guilty of the elements as charged,” the judge said at the conclusion of the nearly four-hour hearing Tuesday.

Simpson was referencing the fact that the drug delivery charge Fuentes faced originally, and which he shed by pleading to the manslaughter charge, carried a penalty of up to 40 years in prison while manslaughter is punishable by no more than 20 years.

Simpson acknowledged that Bennett raised “interesting questions” about the charges and current state of the law.

Should Have Challenged The Charge

Fuentes initially was facing two charges in Park County for manslaughter and conspiracy to deliver drugs. Combined, he was looking at up to 60 years in prison.

As part of the plea agreement, former Park County Attorney Jack Hatfield II dropped the conspiracy charge, while Simpson sentenced him to 15 to 20 years for the manslaughter conviction.

Bennett argued in his filing that manslaughter was an inappropriate charge that Cherni should have argued against because “the facts do not support a manslaughter conviction,” according to his filed motion.

At the crux of his argument is that manslaughter does not apply to drug crimes and that the only other charge, drug-induced homicide, applies only when minors die of a drug overdose.

Though the Wyoming Legislature attempted in 2023 to amend this law to include adults who also die of overdoses, those efforts failed.

In Wyoming, involuntary manslaughter is defined as a person unlawfully killing another without malice and without deliberation, either through unlawful acts or lawful acts conducted in an unlawful manner.   

Selling someone a drug that the person takes willingly and overdoses doesn’t fit a manslaughter conviction, Bennett argued.

Under Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric’s questioning during Tuesday’s hearing, Cherni said that she had been aware of the pending legislation to make additional penalties for drug-induced homicides of adults but did not know why it didn’t pass.

She said that she felt she performed the duties she’d been contracted to perform as a then-attorney for Cowboy Country Criminal Defense, in accordance with the signed contract that included fees related to initial proceedings and plea agreements.

Had Fuentes’ case gone to trial, Cherni said, he would have had to sign a new representational agreement with the firm.

She denied that she had provided ineffective counsel.

“No, I do not believe that I was ineffective in those regards,” she said, noting, however, that she, too, was surprised by the sentence handed down by Simpson, which was higher than both she and Fuentes had anticipated.

Wouldn’t Have Taken The Deal

For his part, Skoric seized on this point, claiming that Fuentes’ motion was based on the premise that he was upset he’d received a 15-to-20-year sentence.

Fuentes and Bennett objected to that claim.

Skoric pressed on, questioning Fuentes about being a convicted drug dealer who profited from selling a substance that “causes the death of thousands of individuals in the United States each year.”

Fuentes countered that pointing, saying he hadn’t been aware that fentanyl was such a dangerous substance until recently and that he was only selling drugs because he’d fallen on hard times.

Skoric pressed Fuentes on whether his actions were “reckless.”

They were “unlawful,” answered Fuentes, but he wouldn't characterize them as reckless. He also objected to the assertion that he was a drug dealer.

“Hard times did push me into a bad decision that I made,” Fuentes said, “but I wouldn’t say it was a life of crime.”

He had no answer for Skoric when the prosecutor asked Fuentes what he thought was an adequate sentence for the crime. Fuentes responded by saying he would have pushed his attorney to take his case to trial if he had been adequately informed.

Bennett returned to the argument that Fuentes was entitled to effective counsel regardless of the nature of the crime and vehemently disagreed that the appeal had anything to do with Fuentes being unhappy with his sentence.

He returned to the nature of the manslaughter charge itself.

“The reason we’re here is because I believe that Mr. Skoric has used this court as a hammer to pound a square peg into a round hole, and I don’t believe that Mr. Fuentes’ conduct is prohibited under the manslaughter statute.”

In the end, Simpson determined that Cherni had provided effective counsel and that Fuentes could have fired her if he had wanted to and could have applied for a public defender. Simpson also noted that Fuentes had willingly entered his plea and, at the time, said he was pleased with his counsel.

“Hindsight is an operative word,” Simpson said. “You know, we’re all smarter the day after we do something.”

Happy with decision

Jackson’s mother, Brenda Armstrong, said she and her family are pleased by Simpson’s decision.

She told Cowboy State Daily over Facebook messenger that the numerous court proceedings have been hard.

“Every time we attend another court hearing it is like opening up old wounds,” she said. “It seems we never are able to fully begin to heal.”

The process is not over, however. Ineffective assistance of counsel claims can return to the Wyoming Supreme Court once they’re argued in the trial court.

Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.