(Stillwater, Okla.) An Oilton man on probation for possessing methamphetamine in Creek County has been charged with possessing the same drug in a Perkins parking lot about eight hours after he appeared in Payne County District Court on a charge of possessing methamphetamine in Cushing.
In his latest drug case, James Gavin Baker, 25, was arrested about 9 p.m. on Aug. 12 in the parking lot of Williams Grocery Store in Perkins, according to an affidavit by Perkins Police Lt. James Galt.
Baker was released from the Payne County Jail two days later on $5,000 bail with an order to appear in court with an attorney on Sept. 11, court records show.
The Perkins police lieutenant went to the Williams Grocery store parking lot after an off-duty officer received a tip from a shopper who said she saw a female “possibly shooting up” in a blue SUV with the words “Ground Level” on the back window, according to an affidavit.
When Galt arrived, “The front passenger door of the vehicle was open and an adult female was standing in between the door and the front passenger seat. I observed two male children in the vehicle and an adult male who appeared to be working on the vehicle’s speaker system,” the Perkins police lieutenant wrote in his affidavit.
“The female subject adamantly denied ‘shooting up’ and showed me her arms. She said she did not have anything on her and did not use drugs,” Galt wrote in his affidavit.
When Baker was asked to empty his pockets, he “immediately turned his right pocket inside out,” the affidavit alleged.
“I asked Mr. Baker what he was doing. Mr. Baker replied, ‘I have something to give you.’ He then retrieved a purple sock from his left pant pocket and said ‘someone gave this to me so I could get rid of it,’” the affidavit alleged.
Inside the sock was a glass smoking device containing a burnt residue and white residue, the affidavit alleged.
“I asked Mr. Baker what the pipe was used for. He told me he did not know. I asked him what was inside the pipe. Mr. Baker told me that wrapped inside the tissue that was inside the pipe was a baggy and a straw.
“I asked him where he got it from. Mr. Baker said a person named ‘Rocky’ had given it to him to get rid of. I told Mr. Baker that people don’t just give glass pipes to other people.
“Mr. Baker then told me that ‘Rocky’ owed him something. I asked him what he owed him and he said ‘about $25.’ He said it was given to him in the parking lot and he was told that if he didn’t want it, he could get rid of it,” the Perkins police lieutenant alleged in his affidavit.
When the lieutenant pulled out the tissue stuffed inside the glass smoking device, he saw a cut straw with a white residue and a small baggy containing a white crystal substance that field-tested as methamphetamine, the affidavit alleged.
After Baker was arrested for alleged drug possession, “I asked Mr. Baker if there was anything inside the vehicle.
“Mr. Baker said he had previously gone to ‘Uncle Mike’s,’ which is a novelty store in Stillwater. He said there was a brown paper bag inside the console, but he did not know what was in it,” the lieutenant wrote in his affidavit.
“Inside the bag were four glass pipes that I recognized through training and experience as items commonly used by abusers of illegal drugs to ingest methamphetamine,” the lieutenant wrote in his affidavit.
“Mr. Baker said he was going to burn incense out of them,” the affidavit said.
Baker said that the woman in his vehicle did not know anything about the items, but since there were 4-year-old twin boys in the SUV, the lieutenant contacted a state Department of Human Services child welfare specialist.
The twins’ mother was not arrested, but the DHS specialist said “she was going to conduct a walk-through of the home to observe the living conditions prior to making her decision on the disposition of the children,” the affidavit said.
“A referral was made to the DHS hotline. This arrest was recorded on my Taser Axon Body Camera,” the lieutenant wrote in his affidavit.
That same afternoon on Aug. 12, about eight hours earlier, Baker had appeared in Payne District Court on a charge of possessing methamphetamine in Cushing during a traffic stop on July 21 by Cushing Police Chief Tully Folden.
Baker and a passenger were traveling in a blue Chevrolet Blazer eastbound in the 2100 block of E. Main Street while going 48 mph in a 40 mph zone, the Cushing police chief alleged in an affidavit.
After Baker consented to a search of his vehicle, “I seized a small Crown Royal bag from the center console, which contained a roll of black electrical tape and a broken glass smoking pipe with burnt residue. I also seized a large baggy which contained several smaller baggies and numerous Q-tips,” the Cushing police chief alleged in his affidavit.
When Baker was interviewed by the Cushing police chief, “Baker denied the baggy containing the numerous smaller baggies and crystalized substance. Baker advised that the baggy and its contents,” belonged to his passenger, Udell McCormick, 44, of Drumright, an ex-convict who got out of prison about four years ago, according to court records.
At the time of his arrest in Perkins on Aug. 12, Baker had been freed on $5,000 bail on Aug. 1 on his Cushing drug charge, court records show.
His passenger, McCormick, called the Payne County Court Clerk’s Office on Aug. 12 and reported that he had been released from jail on a personal recognizance bond so that he could go into the hospital due to an extreme illness a few weeks ago, court records show.
At the time of his methamphetamine arrests in Perkins and Cushing, Baker was on five years’ probation for possession of methamphetamine in Oilton in 2014, court records show.
In Creek County, prosecutors allege that Baker has violated the terms of his five-year deferred sentence. On Aug. 7, Baker was released on $50,000 bail with an order to appear in the Bristow division of Creek County District Court on Aug. 19.
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