A judge has paused the prosecution of a Cody man on felony threat charges due to concerns about the 74-year-old’s mental health.

On Monday, Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah ordered the Wyoming State Hospital to evaluate Marc Taggart.

“… there is reasonable cause to believe that the Defendant has a mental illness or deficiency making him unfit to proceed at this state,” Darrah’s order says in part.

The evaluation was requested by Taggart’s court-appointed attorney, Travis Smith. In a Monday filing, Smith said that unspecified information he’d received led him to believe that “an examination of the Defendant’s current mental state and fitness to proceed [is] warranted.”

Taggart is facing four felony counts of terroristic threats, which relate to four letters that he allegedly sent to a Powell oil and gas company. One Aug. 31 letter bearing Taggart’s signature reportedly demanded at least $56,352,872.73 from the company “within 24 hours” and threatened to destroy a well.

“I am ready willing and able to use my rights as an American citizen, and my resources to remove this well from operation by the use of my second amendment rights, in the field or in your corporate building or by explosive means if I have to in the field or in your corporate office,” the letter added. “I will reclaim MY property with any force I have to in order to recover my lost funds.”

A narrative composed by a Cody police detective says Taggart is also suspected of having sent a similar letter to President Donald Trump and other federal officials, in which Taggart claimed the Powell company was among several that collectively owe him “trillions” of dollars.

The letter drew the attention of federal investigators, who interviewed Taggart on Aug. 31. In that conversation with Bureau of Land Management agents, Taggart reportedly said that his administrative assistant, Wendy Coe, wrote letters to several oil/energy companies and he signed them.

“Marc acknowledged reading some, but not all letters,” Cody Police Det. Scott Burlingame wrote in an affidavit.

Coe, who turns 57 this year, is currently awaiting sentencing on a felony count of attempted aggravated assault and battery. The case stems from Coe’s reported attempt to hire a supposed hitman — actually an undercover agent — to kill her daughter’s boyfriend in late 2023.

Coe also underwent a competency evaluation in 2025 and was found to be mentally fit to proceed.

As for Taggart’s case, it will remain on hold until his evaluation is completed. He has been jailed at the Park County Detention Center since his Oct. 8 arrest, with bail set at $50,000 cash.