(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Yale teenager, who was charged with his then-roommate with breaking into a shop building in the 2200 block of N. Mt. Vernon Road, has pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary in the felony case.
Gary Daniel Wright, 19, who had been jailed since his April 1 arrest, was released on a personal recognizance bond Friday pending his Dec. 11 sentencing before District Judge Phillip Corley.
Wright’s co-defendant, Trey Alexander Buntin, 20, who now reportedly lives in Florida, has not yet been arrested in the Payne County case, court records show.
Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Harper was advised on Feb. 27 that the victim had “trail camera images of a vehicle that he believed stole property from his shop building,” according to an affidavit.
On the camera, the deputy found two images of an older red Ford pickup with two occupants entering and leaving the property, the affidavit said.
When the deputy went to the scrap metal side of 108 salvage yard, an employee told him that a pickup matching that description came in on Feb. 26 and unloaded some items, the affidavit said.
The employee recognized the passenger as Buntin, and the driver identified himself as Wright, the affidavit alleged.
When the victim met the deputy at the 108 scrap yard, he “identified three Jeep rims, a large piece of pipe and a battery as being stolen from his shop,” the affidavit said.
“I was able to get video from 108 scrap metal showing the driver of the vehicle come into the office and sell material, and video of the red Ford truck drive across the scales and begin unloading the property,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
The employee “advised the men also tried to also sell a keg as scrap, but were refused because it was marked as property of Anheuser-Busch,” the affidavit said.
Only three weeks before that incident, Buntin had been placed on five years’ probation in two stolen property cases in Payne County, to which he had pleaded guilty, court records show.
“On March 31, 2015, Buntin was given a travel permit to travel to the state of Florida and was subsequently allowed to reside there permanently, as his case has been accepted by Florida via Interstate Compact,” Oklahoma Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Officer Jason Nixon wrote in a probation violation report.
The probation officer has recommended to the Payne County judge “that Buntin be accelerated to incarceration and ordered to complete the Oklahoma DOC’s Regimented Inmate Discipline Program (RID), a prison boot camp program.
“It is also recommended that Buntin be responsible for extradition costs that may incur if he is to be returned to Oklahoma through the Payne County Sheriff’s Office,” the probation officer wrote in his report to the court.
Buntin had admitted concealing various well heads and shivs stolen from Ruh Oil Company on June 11, 2014, court records show.
The same sheriff’s deputy wrote in an affidavit that a representative of the oil company “had pictures of the suspect vehicle pulling into his site south of 19th on Highway 18,” where numerous well heads and grooved shivs had been taken.
“I immediately recognized the vehicle as being driven on a regular basis by Trey Buntin through previous calls,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
“I then went to 108 Auto Salvage,” where an employee said that “Trey Buntin had been in the afternoon before with multiple loads,” that looked as if they were used in the oilfield, the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
A video showed “Trey Buntin pulled onto the scales and sold loads of scrap metal,” the affidavit said.
When the owner arrived at 108 Auto Salvage, “he immediately began identifying property that belonged to his company,” the affidavit said.
The deputy said he learned that a 16-year-old boy was a passenger in the vehicle “and accompanied Mr. Buntin during the crime,” the affidavit said.
Eight months before that crime, Buntin was charged with possessing a vehicle tire, rim and four hubcaps stolen from a Yale man on Oct. 24, 2013, court records show.
Buntin was arrested in that case after Yale Police Officer Richard Sterling received a report of a car driven by Buntin “driving at a high rate of speed on residential streets,” an affidavit said.
After Buntin was taken into custody for driving on a suspended license, the officer performed an impound log on the vehicle, he affidavit said.
“I noticed that there was a Hercules tire on a steel rim and four grey/silver in color hubcaps in the trunk of the vehicle,” that Buntin said he got earlier in the day, the officer wrote in his affidavit.
After the officer returned to the Yale police station, he was advised that a theft had occurred overnight or early that morning in which a tire, rim and four hubcaps were taken from property in the 400 block of W. Boston, the affidavit said.
The owner “advised me that he walked out to his vehicle this morning to find that the right rear tire and rim were missing along with all four hubcaps from his vehicle,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
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