(Stillwater) — A Cushing man who admitted breaking into a Cushing convenience store that had $1.939 damage has been charged with taking a car that had the keys left in it from a Cushing driveway.
Gene Anthony Turner, 20, was arraigned last week on a felony charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle, which carries as much as a five-year prison term on conviction.
Turner was freed on $7,500 bail and ordered to return to court on Jan. 8 with an attorney to represent him on his latest charge.
A month ago, Turner pleaded guilty to breaking into Bill’s EZ Out convenience store on Ninth Street in Cushing in August — by throwing a piece of dried concrete through the right front glass door — and stealing several packs of cigarettes.
Turner was allowed to remain free on a personal recognizance bond under the Delayed Sentencing Program for Youthful Offenders and ordered to return to court in May for sentencing on that burglary charge, court records show.
In his latest case, Turner’s fingerprint was allegedly found on a car that was taken from the owner’s driveway in the 1000 block of West Moses Street on Oct. 27, court records show.
The owner said that he left his car — with the keys inside — at about 8 p.m. the previous night in his driveway and looked out a window the next morning to find his car stolen, an affidavit by Cushing Police Detective Adam Harp said.
The vehicle, from which Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy George Disel recovered partial fingerprints on the driver’s door, was found the same day about one mile north of the Deep Rock School, the affidavit said.
A month later, “The OSBI Automated Fingerprint Identification System identified one of the latent prints belonging to a Gene Anthony Turner,” the affidavit said.
Two days later, the detective located a juvenile who said that “he and Gene Turner were walking around one night and that he made a comment wanting to steal a car,” the affidavit alleged.
The juvenile said that the keys were in the vehicle on the west side of town and that Turner drove while he was a passenger, the affidavit alleged.
The juvenile said that “they went driving around town and that Turner dropped him off at a house,” the affidavit alleged.
When Turner — who had initially denied knowing anything about the car being stolen — was re-interviewed by the detective, “Turner admitted that he knew that the vehicle was stolen,” the affidavit alleged.
Turner said that the juvenile had called him, told him that he was going to go through cars to get one and to meet him in the area of where the vehicle was stolen, the affidavit alleged.
Turner said that the juvenile picked him up around Moses and Violet Streets and drove around outside the city limits, the affidavit alleged.
Turner said that he dropped the juvenile off at a friend’s house and later left the vehicle out in the county, the affidavit alleged.
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