Robert Tanner Jacob Simpson
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 24-year-old Yale man who was on probation for three property crimes in Payne County when he broke into a house for sale in Yale was given a five-year prison term on Tuesday for burglary as part of a plea agreement with the prosecution approved in court by Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler.
Robert Tanner Jacob Simpson pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree burglary of a wooden frame house in the 400 block of E. Boston in Yale.
The owner had contacted Yale police on Aug. 26, 2021, to report he had a video of the burglar, according to an affidavit by Yale Police Officer Keith Hammons.
“I reviewed the video footage and was able to verify the person’s identity,” as Tanner Simpson, the Yale officer wrote in his affidavit.
On Aug. 14, 2021, the owner had filed a police report “after someone had broken in through the front door and tried to remove a microwave, refrigerator and a stove — leaving them pulled away from the walls. The refrigerator was still connected to a water line and the stove was still connected to a gas line; these appliances are to be sold with the house,” the affidavit said.
The owner said, “he installed a trail cam (camera) outside of the house pointing at the front door, a couple of days after the first incident had taken place. He then stated that a friend had mowed the yard and found the front door unlocked,” the affidavit said.
The owner said, “he went to the property to check the trail cam and found a video of a male person standing in the doorway shining a flashlight in the house. He stated he had locked the doors after the first incident,” the affidavit said.
The Yale officer said, “While I was reviewing the video, I observed the male subject known locally as Tanner Simpson had an adjustable crescent under his left bicep — possibly to be used to disconnect the water line from the refrigerator and the gas line from the stove,” according to his affidavit.
Simpson, who was arrested on the house burglary charge on Sept. 23, 2021, had been placed on seven years’ probation 2020 for second-degree burglary in 2019, on five years’ probation in 2018 for unauthorized use of a vehicle in 2018, and on five years’ probation in 2018 for larceny of a vehicle in 2017, court records show.
In court Tuesday, Simpson also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors — leaving the scene of an accident of an unattended vehicle in Cushing on Sept. 3, 2020, for which he was given a concurrent 10-day jail term plus a $250 fine, and also carrying an animal in a cruel manner in Yale on July 10, 2021, for which he was given a concurrent one-year jail term.
