Anthony Hernandez
(PCSD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — A 42-year-old Cushing man has avoided a July 28 jury trial by accepting a plea bargain for a 10-year prison term followed by five years of probation for trafficking methamphetamine in Stillwater in 2023.
Anthony Robert Hernandez, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking after a prior felony conviction, was sentenced by Payne County District Judge Jason Reese last week. When Hernandez finishes his prison term, he must comply with the methamphetamine registry and pay various costs under the judge’s order, court records show.
Hernandez had been arrested at 4 pm on Aug. 18, 2023, following a traffic stop in the 6300 block of E. 6th in Stillwater on an SUV in which he was a back seat passenger, a police affidavit said.
Stillwater Police Detective Josh Carson wrote in an affidavit, “I observed the paper tag was altered and the original numbers were changed to make the tag expire at the end of August.”
Hernandez “told me they were going to get Mexican food in Cushing, but did not know where,” the detective wrote in his affidavit.
After Stillwater Police Detective Newly McSpadden said that his K9 partner alerted to the odor of illegal drugs, the SUV was searched, the affidavit said.
“In a black handbag in the front passenger floorboard, I located a large amount of methamphetamine, packaging material and a set of digital scales. Anthony said all illegal items in the vehicle were his.
“I searched Anthony incident to arrest and located a large amount of U.S. currency in his pocket,” in different denominations and consistent with drug dealing, Detective Carson wrote in his affidavit.
A total of 172 grams of the drug, which is nearly nine times the amount required for a methamphetamine trafficking charge, was seized along with $1,530 taken off Hernandez’s person, the affidavit said.
The driver and other passengers were released, the affidavit said.
When he was interviewed in jail, Hernandez said, “he was going to sell the methamphetamine because he did not have a job,” the affidavit said.
Following his arrest, Hernandez was jailed for about two weeks until he posted $50,000 bond but re-arrested about six months later when he failed to appear in court and was again jailed, this time on $100,000 bond, court records show.
If Hernadez had not accepted a plea bargain, he could have been given as much as a life prison term due to his prior felony conviction in 2018 for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon by throwing a brick through a car window in Cushing in 2017, for which he was placed on five years of probation except for 120 days in jail.
