Man Sentenced to Probation After Drug Bust

A New York man will avoid spending time in a Wyoming prison as long as he complies with the terms of his probation handed down in a sentencing hearing Tuesday in Albany County District Court.

Barry William Connor, 25, will serve five years of supervised probation after pleading guilty in April to one count of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. Should he violate his probation, Connor would find himself serving an underlying four- to seven-year prison sentence.

Connor will stay out of a Wyoming prison for the time being, but could still spend years in a New Jersey prison pending the outcome of two charges brought against him in that state: possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and possession of heroin with intent to deliver.

Defense attorney David Korman said in court Tuesday that those charges were dropped and then refiled. New Jersey has a warrant out for Connor's arrest, and Connor remains in custody in the Albany County Detention Center pending his extradition to New Jersey, which will likely take several weeks.

Connor was arrested during a Dec. 30 traffic stop west of Laramie on Interstate 80 along with 25-year-old Zachary Sasz. They were traveling from Las Vegas, Nev. to New York in a grey Volkswagen Tiguan with just less than 20 pounds of marijuana, nearly a gram of cocaine, $1,374 in cash and five cell phones.

Sasz died May 6 in New York after he was found seriously injured in the westbound lanes of I-90 around 1 a.m. As reported by Time Warner Cable News, Sasz jumped out of a car during a fight with his girlfriend. The girlfriend then regained control of the vehicle and kept driving, opting not to go back for Sasz.

Connor told the court Tuesday that he has been trying to turn his life around after roughly a year and a half in the drug trade.

"I wanted to get out of this type of business," Connor said. "At this point I would have preferred to be married to my fiance already and working on having children."

"And instead you were dealing drugs," replied Judge Jeffrey Donnell.