5 people overdosed at this Mississippi Coast motel. The managers are headed to prison

Two former managers of the Economy Inn in Bay St. Louis will spend more than nine years in prison after a federal judge sentenced the couple on Wednesday for dealing drugs out of the U.S. 90 motel.

Pernell Robert Galloway, 54, will spend 10 years and 11 months in prison. Cassie Louise McKenzie, 42, will spend nine years and seven months in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi announced Wednesday.

A judge sentenced the couple in federal court in Gulfport. They pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

In 2023, an undercover investigation found Galloway and McKenzie dealing methamphetamine from the motel, according to a news release from the Southern District of Mississippi. In an initial release on Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the couple had dealt a mixture of methamphetamine and fentanyl, but in a corrected statement Friday authorities said “the press release should have only referenced methamphetamine.”

The methamphetamine led to four overdoses and one death, records show.

Drug Enforcement agents searched the hotel last June and found 14 grams of the drug in two separate bags. They also found a gun, digital scales and unused bags for distribution, the release said.

Galloway and McKenzie were indicted by a federal grand jury and later pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Galloway — a convicted felon — said the gun belonged to him in an interview with federal agents after the arrests. He also told authorities he had gotten McKenzie, his girlfriend, involved in the crime, the Sun Herald previously reported.

The hotel had long been a source of complaints. Unsuspecting visitors went online to criticize holes in the walls, mold, collapsing roofs, drugs in the parking lot, needles in the trash and evictions.

But the property’s fate could turn around. The Economy Inn has since been bought by a New Orleans real estate group who plans to renovate the property and turn it into a retro vacation spot.

Sun Herald staff writer Margaret Baker contributed reporting.