(Stillwater, Okla.) A Guthrie man, who reportedly tried to sell Perkins Police Chief Bob Ernst a stolen weed eater and edger contained in the bed of a stolen pickup truck, has pleaded guilty to the three-count charge in Payne County District Court including driving without a valid license.
Cody Raymond Palmer, 21, was jailed about a month on $5,000 bail and released on a personal recognizance bond last week pending his sentencing on Sept. 25 before District Judge Phillip Corley, who ordered a Youthful Offender Accountability Plan prepared by the state Department of Corrections.
Perkins Police Officer George Hannon was contacted shortly before 2 p.m. on Feb. 1 by the police chief who said he “was approached by a male subject who wanted to sell him a weed eater and edger,” according to Hannon’s affidavit.
“Chief Ernst advised me the subject was in a silver Chevrolet pickup in the shopping mall across from the Williams grocery store.
“As I approached Kinder-Wells on North Main Street, I was able to see the vehicle backing out of a parking place located at the laundromat,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
As the driver pulled out of the lot and turned west onto Highway 33, the driver was not wearing his seatbelt, the affidavit said.
When the officer approached the pickup truck, “the driver kept his window up and asked me what was wrong,” Hannon wrote in his affidavit.
After the driver admitted he did not have a valid driver’s license, “Chief Ernst asked Cody if the vehicle belonged to him,” the affidavit said.
“As Chief Ernst was talking to Cody, dispatch radioed that the vehicle was stolen out of Oklahoma City,” the affidavit said.
After the driver was arrested, the officer found in the bed of the pickup a weed eater with a sticker from Kinnunen, which is an equipment rental agency in Stillwater, and an edger without a sticker or serial number, the affidavit said. Both had been taken from a Perkins couple, according to the charge.
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