Casper Woman Sentenced to Prison in Methamphetamine Conspiracy
A woman will spend the next few years behind bars after investigators used one of her public Facebook posts to link her to an alleged methamphetamine dealer who brought the drug in from Colorado in amounts as large as 25 pounds at a time.
Crystal Lee Stegelman, 35, was sentenced Jan. 5 to three to five years in the Wyoming Women's Center with credit for 174 days served on a felony charge of conspiracy to deliver methamphetamine.
Defense attorney Kurt Infanger told the court that Stegelman was trying to move to New Mexico to start over when she was arrested.
"I feel passionate about living and leading a sober life," Stegelman told the court.
Court documents say beginning in April 2015, agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation interviewed confidential informants while investigating a group of meth dealers in Casper.
In June 2016, one of those informants named Stegelman as the main "liquidator" of methamphetamine in Casper for one alleged dealer -- a man who was reportedly connected to a Mexican drug cartel and who sold to people in the Casper area, the affidavit says.
The confidential informant said Stegelman had recently been on Judge Judy's TV show.
Stegelman's alleged dealer fronted methamphetamine to her about three times per week beginning in roughly June 2015, according to a confidential informant. Stegelman would reportedly get two to three ounces of methamphetamine at a time, paying $1,200 per ounce.
Another person who reportedly sold methamphetamine for the same alleged dealer told agents that Stegelman on one occasion took most of a quarter-pound of methamphetamine and sold it to users in Casper, according to the affidavit.
The fronts continued through June 2016, court documents say.
During June 2016, Wyoming DCI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents saw Stegelman's name and cell phone number repeatedly show up on the man's phone line.
On July 14, a special agent saw Stegelman publish a public Facebook post, saying she was selling personal items and offering her cell phone number to anyone interested.
The number she posted was the same phone number that showed up on the alleged dealer's phone line.
The special agent also noticed that at least one picture Stegelman included in her post matched the front of a house on South McKinley Street in Casper.
Agents interviewed Stegelman at her house the next morning. She said she met the alleged dealer in the late summer or fall of 2015 and started getting one-ounce quantities of methamphetamine from him, usually paying about $1,300 per ounce.
Court documents say Stegelman, during that interview, admitted to selling methamphetamine to at least four different people, typically charging roughly $100 per gram. She also admitted to selling meth to a woman up to twice a week for about a month.