Derek Edwards
(PCSD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — A 20-year-old Cushing man, who was convicted of methamphetamine possession last year, has been jailed on $20,000 bond pending a Jan. 5 court appearance on charges of second-degree burglary, stealing an ATV and conspiring with three others to commit the crimes of burglary and vehicle theft.
If convicted of all three felony counts, Derek Ray Edwards could be imprisoned for 20 years, according to the charges filed during Thanksgiving week. His alleged co-conspirators, two of whom have been listed as prosecution witnesses against Edwards, have not been charged, court records show.
A house near a marijuana grow in rural Cushing was burglarized between 7 pm on Oct. 21 and 11 am on Oct. 22 by breaking a bathroom window, Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers wrote in an affidavit.
The burglars “ransacked the house, attempted to break into two safes bur were unsuccessful — tampering with them to the point that (the owner) needed a locksmith to open them,” the affidavit said.
They took all of the vehicle keys and left one pickup with doors open and ransacked but stole an ATV and another pickup truck, the affidavit said. Two guns were stolen along with a large amount of electronics, tools, ammunition, and jewelry including a diamond wedding ring, the affidavit said.
“On Oct. 23, between 4 am and 4:30 am, the suspects returned to the residence in the stolen Ford pickup. (The homeowner) turned on the lights and they left. At about 6 am, they returned again in the truck. This time, (the owner) left the lights off, armed himself and went outside to confront them.
“The truck drove by him, stopped and the driver rolled down the window. The male inside appeared to have facial hair or a partial mask. Fearing he was about to be shot, the owner fired at the truck. It continued down the driveway, turned west onto 9th Street, went a few hundred feet and crashed into a creek bed on the south side of the road. The suspects fled,” the affidavit alleged.
Several days later, the sheriff’s investigator stopped a vehicle in Cushing that had some of the stolen items in it, the affidavit alleged. The investigator subsequently learned that Edwards and another man “had gone to hit a marijuana grow,” the affidavit alleged.
On Oct. 28, the sheriff’s investigator went to a Cushing house to find Edwards, who was not located, but in a bedroom that he used found various items of ammunition along with Edwards’ casino card and jail commissary card, the affidavit alleged.
“There were also items stolen from the marijuana grow just west of (the burglarized homeowner’s property) including mail with the grow’s address, a backpack full of horticulture chemicals and grow lights,” the affidavit alleged.
The next day, Cushing police and sheriff’s deputies went back to the Cushing house in an attempt to find Edwards, the affidavit said. One of Edwards’ alleged co-conspirators told Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Dalton Ross that the ATV might be at the southeast corner of Norfolk and Grandstaff at abandoned property, where it was recovered and released to the burglarized homeowner, the affidavit alleged.
Subsequently, the sheriff’s investigator found that the homeowner’s wife’s stolen wedding ring had been sold to a Stillwater pawn shop, the affidavit alleged.
“On Nov. 4 at 4:39 pm, Payne County Dispatch got a call from a District One Commissioner’s Office employee about suspicious items under a creek bridge south of Eseco on Schlegal Road. Deputy Cooper Tanner responded, recovered items belonging to (the burglarized homeowner) and brought them to me,” the sheriff’s investigator alleged in his affidavit.
“On Nov. 12 at about 10:41 am, Edwards was arrested in Perkins on a misdemeanor Payne County warrant. He said he (and two of his alleged co-conspirators) went to the grow west (of the burglarized homeowner’s property) several times to steal copper wire…Edwards broke the bathroom window on the west side, cut his hand (he showed me the healing spot,) entered, unlocked the back door.
“He and (a co-conspirator) bagged items while (another co-conspirator) watched. They loaded the gray Ford pickup. He and (a co-conspirator) took the ATV to a storage unit on Harmony. The next night, he and (a co-conspirator) went back, stole more from inside, and he drove the truck.
“Edwards said they got rid of the stuff, gave him maybe $100. He admitted pawning the wedding ring, that (two co-conspirators) pawned bows and ammo, took ammo to (a pawn shop in Cushing), sold ammo to a gun store west of Stillwater, and sold the PS5 and controller in Stillwater,” the affidavit alleged. Some of the ammunition and electronic equipment was recovered, the affidavit alleged.
Much of the stolen property has not been recovered, the affidavit said.
