By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 45-year-old Jenks man, who admitted drunk driving on Highway 33 in Perkins, has been given an eight-year prison term on the felony charge filed as a third offense, as part of a plea agreement with the prosecution approved in court last week.
Associate District Judge Michael Kulling told Willie Jones on April 16 in court that he would suspend the balance of his sentence on his completion of Drug Offender Work Camp. While on probation, Jones must have an ignition interlock for 18 months, have random drug tests and pay $1,200 in assessments along with court costs, the judge ordered.
Jones had been arrested at 1:50 am on July 15, 2023, by Perkins Police Officer Dylan Anderson, who was advised by a dispatcher at 1:20 am of “someone calling about a reckless driver near Cushing,” in a green SUV headed toward Perkins, an affidavit said.
“I located the vehicle driving westbound on SH 33 passing Sadler Road,” a GMC SUV that swerved to the right and then swerved left of the center line on the highway, the Perkins officer wrote in his affidavit.
After pulling over in front of Main and Fairway Drive, “Jones told me he did not know where he was and said he was not from around here. When Jones stepped out of the vehicle, I asked him how much alcohol he had to drink, and he told me a fifth.
“I asked Jones what he drank a fifth of. Jones said he drank a fifth of vodka about two hours prior,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
After trying to do a field sobriety walk and turn test, “Jones stopped and said he could not do the test. Jones told me he was tired, and I told him he also had a fifth of vodka, and he said, ‘Yeah,"” the officer wrote in his affidavit. Jones refused to take a test for the presence of alcohol, the affidavit said.
At the time of his Perkins arrest, Jones was free on $1,000 bail on a felony charge of drunk driving three months earlier in Tulsa County, a felony case which remains pending.
Jones had previously been placed on probation in Oklahoma County for misdemeanor drunk driving in 2006 and felony drunk driving in 2013, court records show.
