Scooter Carey

For more than four years, Scooter D. Carey made a clean break from the criminal activity of his past. After racking up five felony convictions between 2007 and 2016 — and serving time in federal prison — Carey became a family man, welcomed twin daughters and stayed out of trouble in Colorado.

But then last fall, “things fell off the rails, unfortunately,” Carey’s attorney said at a court hearing last week.

One day in mid-September, the 51-year-old is alleged to have gone on a crime spree that started in Sheridan with a stolen truck and a robbery before ending in Cody with the theft of an e-bike.

“I’m ashamed every single day of what I’ve done to my family and I pray to God every day that he’ll let me be a daddy again some day,” Carey told Park County District Court Judge Bill Simpson on Friday afternoon, “and I’m asking for your mercy.”

Simpson went ahead and accepted a plea deal that calls for Carey — who’s been in custody since September — to serve a year of jail time for stealing and defacing the e-bike in Cody. 

But it’s in Sheridan County that Carey needs the most mercy: Prosecutors there have filed notice that, because of Carey’s criminal record, they intend to seek a life sentence. He has yet to enter a plea to those charges.

Though Carey still has more than five months left to serve for his crimes in Cody, Simpson agreed to allow him to be immediately transferred to Sheridan County so he can begin addressing that case. However, the judge indicated it would be up to Sheridan County officials to decide if they want to pick Carey up now or wait until he completes the full year of jail time in Park County.

From Sheridan to Cody

The narrative pieced together by investigators and laid out in court documents begins in the parking lot of a Wendy’s in Sheridan. It’s there that Carey is alleged to have stolen an older pickup that had been parked outside the restaurant for sale.

The truck’s owner later spotted Carey driving the stolen vehicle and attempted to confront him, according to the owner’s later account to the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office. However, Carey is alleged to have hit and knocked the man down, then stole the man’s other truck — a 2022 GMC that he’d used to pursue Carey. Sheridan County prosecutors allege it amounted to a robbery and, because it’s a crime of violence and would be Carey’s third-plus felony, opened up the possibility of a “habitual criminal” designation and potential life sentence for a conviction.

After taking the GMC, the sheriff’s office believes Carey headed into the Bighorn Mountains, where he swapped out the truck’s license plates for some he stole off another vehicle. After that, he allegedly trespassed at a private cabin, dumped a pile of items he’d stolen from the GMC and broke into a shed to steal an old generator.

It’s believed that Carey then traveled to Cody, as the GMC was found abandoned there that afternoon. However, it took authorities some time to identify it as the stolen truck due to the license plate swap.

Meanwhile, Carey is alleged to have made off with a multi-thousand-dollar e-bike that he found behind a downtown bar. He then purchased some black spray paint from Ace Hardware and began repainting the bike in an apparent attempt to disguise it. However, his actions drew the suspicions of Ace staff, who contacted Cody police. They found Carey riding the stolen e–bike and arrested him.

Though the bike was defaced, no restitution was ordered because the Park County Attorney’s Office said it was unable to get a damage estimate from its owner, despite repeated outreach.

‘How sorry I really am’

Carey was reportedly apologetic at the time of his arrest, and he expressed deep remorse on Friday, as he pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft and a misdemeanor count of property destruction for the theft in Cody.

“I feel like I can tell you how sorry I am all day, every day until the day you retire and it would be a microcosm of how sorry I really am,” Carey told Judge Simpson.

Carey’s defense attorney, Branden Vilos, vouched for his client, saying he believed Carey is very sincere. Carey had a childhood “that I wouldn’t wish upon anybody,” Vilos added, and had put together a very successful stretch as a family man and good citizen until September.

“... I think that he’s committed at this point, and hopefully we can help him down the road,” Vilos said, mentioning that Carey is “going to face some considerable time, most likely” in Sheridan County.

As Simpson accepted the plea deal and imposed the year of jail time, he noted Carey’s “extensive criminal record.”

“I would hope at some point maybe you can get your life in order, but you’re 52 [sic] years of age,” the judge said. 

“There’s always hope, there’s always the potential for reconciliation and redemption,” Simpson added, “but you’re running out of time and options.”

In addition to the pending case in Sheridan County, Carey indicated he’s also facing the prospect of being sent back to federal prison, as he’d still been on supervised release for a 2015 drug crime in Washington at the time of his September arrest.