Cushing ex-con gets 15-year prison term for meth trafficking

    (Stillwater, Okla.) — An ex-convict from Cushing has been given a 15-year prison term for aggravated trafficking of methamphetamine, approximately two weeks after he was released from prison where he served time for kidnapping.

    John Brandon Cress, 27, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced in accordance with a plea bargain with the prosecution that was approved in court by District Judge Phillip Corley on Friday.

    Cress had been arrested by Cushing Deputy Police Chief Nick Myers outside a restaurant on N. Cleveland at 5:04 pm on Dec. 6, 2021, with 491 grams or 1.082 pounds of methamphetamine, the weight of which is “24 times more than the minimum amount by statute for trafficking methamphetamine,” his affidavit said.

    Inside a black backpack in the back seat of Cress’s car were “six syringes that appeared to be unused and one used syringe with a liquid substance inside,” the affidavit said.

    “Also in the bag was a black bank deposit bag containing an operational blue digital scale, multiple empty zip lock style bags, and one metal pistol magazine with one .380 caliber pistol round.

    “I also located in the black bag two bags of THC consumable products and one empty bag, two Narcan 4mg nasal spray packs,” and other items, the Cushing deputy police chief wrote in his affidavit.

    Myers and Sgt. Matt Piatt had been at the restaurant since 4:34 pm regarding a vandalism investigation when Cress left with another man, who was not arrested, and got into a black Honda Civic that started and sat idle for several minutes, an affidavit said.

    After Cress, who was in the driver’s seat, was arrested on an outstanding Cushing Municipal Court warrant, the deputy police chief asked Sgt. Piatt to have his K9 partner conduct a free air sniff of the vehicle, the affidavit said.

    “Sgt. Piatt advised me after the free air sniff that the K9 alerted on the driver’s side of the vehicle,” where a white bag containing suspected methamphetamine was located in the rear floorboard on the driver’s side,” the deputy police chief wrote in his affidavit.

    “I also observed a black backpack sitting between the middle floorboard of the rear of the vehicle,” that had a large amount of a white crystal substance inside a gallon zip lock style bag, the deputy police chief wrote in his affidavit.

    Cress admitted that the black backpack was his and also said that “he dropped a bag of dope between the seat as he exited the vehicle,” the affidavit said.

    According to court records and the state Department of Corrections, Cress previously had been convicted of:

    * vehicle theft in Cushing in 2018 for which he was placed on five years’ probation in 2019 with an order to pay $1,000 restitution;

    * methamphetamine possession in 2013 in Payne County for which he was originally given five years’ probation that was revoked in 2019 to four years and nine months in prison which he apparently discharged in September of 2020;