A Box Butte County woman is behind bars after being sentenced in three cases in Box Butte County District Court earlier this month.
Bethany Wacker, 29, of Alliance, came before Box Butte County District Court Judge Travis O’Gorman on July 13 to be sentenced in three cases. In the first case, Wacker was serving a 24-month term of probation for charges resulting from an incident in 2020. In that case, she was found guilty of possession of methamphetamine, a class 4 felony, and theft by receiving stolen property, a class 2 misdemeanor. According to the Affidavit for Custody, on Jan. 23, 2020, officers with the Alliance Police Department executed a search warrant at a residence in the 1200 block of Hammond Lane. While searching the northwest bedroom, officers located multiple items with suspected methamphetamine residue, including a makeshift bong with a glass pipe and rubber hose. The located residue later field tested positive for methamphetamine. A small baggie with approximately 0.6 grams of a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine was also located in the bedroom.
Wacker claimed that the bedroom where the items were located was hers and another individual’s. According to the Affidavit, she admitted to using methamphetamine inside the bedroom within the past 24 hours, prior to the search.
Officers also located a lootcrate box inside the kitchen during the search, which was identified as an item that was stolen during burglary. Wacker was sentenced to probation on Oct. 14, 2020. A motion to revoke that probation was filed earlier this year.
In the second case, Wacker was charged with distribution of methamphetamine, a class 2 felony, and distribution of a controlled substance near a school, a class 1D felony. The events in that case occurred on Oct. 22, 2020.
In the third case, Wacker was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, each a class 4 felony. According to the Affidavit for Custody, on March 21, 2022, a deputy with the Box Butte County Sheriff’s Office received notice from a probation officer that they were searching a residence in Hemingford belonging to Wacker. The probation officer asked for help as they located contraband.
When the deputy arrived, probation officers told the deputy they located a wooden box on the bottom shelf of a coffee table. The officers showed the deputy where the box was located, and the deputy observed a small plastic bag with a white crystalline substance in it, which later field tested positive for methamphetamine. The weight of the bag was 3.19 grams.
The deputy also found a homemade plastic smoking device and a tooter straw, as well as four blue M-30 pills, which commonly contain fentanyl. The deputy arrested Wacker for possession of methamphetamine and fentanyl.
On May 11, Wacker entered into a plea agreement in all three cases. For entering an admission of probation violation in the first case, one count of possession of a controlled substance was dismissed in the third case. In the second case, in exchange for pleading no contest or guilty, to distribution of a controlled substance, the charge of distribution of a controlled substance near a school was dismissed.
On July 14, Wacker was sentenced to serve a one year in the department of corrections in the first case. In the second case, Judge O’Gorman sentenced Wacker to serve not less than six years and not more than eight years in the Department of Corrections, with credit for 187 days served. In the final case, Wacker was sentenced to serve one year in the Department of Corrections, with the sentence to run consecutive to the sentence in the second case. The sentence in the first case was ordered to be served concurrently with the other cases.
Wacker will be eligible for parole in January 2025.