A Cheyenne woman who was added to Laramie County’s “10 Most Wanted” list last year was arrested earlier this month and waived her preliminary hearing Monday on a February 2023 charge of child endangerment for smoking methamphetamine and using fentanyl around her two children.
Ashley Nicole Bennett was also charged with two counts of forgery in 2023. Bennett, 40, skipped town after posting a $5,000 cash bond and was not arrested until Aug. 2 of this year. She is being held at the Laramie County Detention Center.
Bennett’s daughter, who is listed as “NB” in court documents, called the Cheyenne Police Department in February 2023, when she was 15 years old.
According to an affidavit filed by police, who asked her if Bennett had smoked with her or provided her drugs, NB stated she overdosed in 2022 by taking her mother’s Suboxone and had intended to take her own life.
Not Taken To Hospital
“Although Ashley did not provide the fentanyl or Suboxone on this occasion, Ashley did nothing to prevent the accessibility of these drugs to NB,” the affidavit states. The teen said her mother used Narcan on her but did not call emergency medical services or take her to the hospital.
Bennett was one of five fugitives added to the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office “most wanted” list in December.
NB’s 9-year-old brother, called “MM” in court documents, was allegedly also exposed to the two controlled substances. If convicted of this felony, Bennett faces up to five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.
Try Fentanyl
NB told police her mother let her use fentanyl after she said she wanted to try it, and her mother said it tasted like “burnt popcorn.”
The daughter said Bennett took her to a convenience store and had her act as a “lookout” while her mother smoked drugs, and another time smoked drugs in a bathroom stall at a gas station while NB also served as a lookout.
NB told police Adam Schmidt, then 39, and James Dykema, then 50, also lived in the family’s trailer house and smoked methamphetamine there, according to the police affidavit.
When police attempted to do a welfare check on the children on Jan. 24, 2023, Dykema allegedly answered the door and said they needed Schmidt’s permission to enter, and he was not home.
Police called Schmidt, who said he was at work and did not want them at the trailer while he wasn’t there.
Scared Of Arrest
The next day NB contacted police and told them the two men were scared they would arrest Dykema because he had an outstanding warrant, and affidavit says. NB told police Schmidt hid the drugs in the yard but did not know exactly where.
She also said her mother had a lock box where she kept some drugs, pipes and Narcan.
The affidavit said Bennett allowed police to do a welfare check at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 25, 2023, and they asked if they could search for drugs. An officer said he could not complete a thorough search at that time.
The next day, the officer said he spoke with NB, who told him she took a photograph of her mother’s drugs. “I observed a small, partially melted blue pill on a piece of tin foil, with burnt residue around it,” he wrote. Through his training, he noted, he knew people often consume fentanyl pills by placing them on aluminum foil, heating the underside and inhaling the fumes.
The officer said that process was consistent with what he observed in NB’s photo.
On Jan. 26, 2023, police obtained a search warrant and said they found used drug paraphernalia commonly used to smoke methamphetamine and fentanyl, used plastic bags with methamphetamine residue, and burnt foil. The bags tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, the officer wrote.
Bennett’s two children were then placed in protective custody.
On the two forgery charges, Bennett is accused of cashing two fraudulent checks made out to Otis Burchett, who died in November 2022. Bennett was identified by an employee at First Education Federal Credit Union as the person who cashed the two fraudulent checks. The account was drawn from WyHy Federal Credit Union.
The two checks cashed totaled $1,345. The forgery count are felonies and punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
Kerry Drake can be reached at: Kerry@CowboyStateDaily.com
