Jerry Hiltzman
(DOC file photo)
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 53-year-old Cushing man has been charged with stealing a pickup truck that hit an electrical pole — resulting in injuries to the defendant who was airlifted to an Oklahoma City hospital, according to court records.
Jerry Willis Hiltzman, for whom an arrest warrant was issued last week, has not yet appeared in Payne County District Court on the felony charge carrying a maximum penalty of a five-year prison term and a fine of up to three times the value of the vehicle but not more than $500,000.
Cushing police had been sent at 3:33 pm on April 10 to 9th and Thompson regarding an injury accident in which a red Ram 1500 pickup truck hit an electrical pole, Cushing Police Officer Heather Snow wrote in an affidavit.
The driver, Hiltzman, who was moaning and in pain, was removed from the truck and loaded into an ambulance before being life-flighted to OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City, the affidavit said.
“Before Hiltzman was loaded into the helicopter, he stated that the truck was not his but a friend’s. He also asked that we contact his wife,” the Cushing officer alleged in an affidavit.
“On the scene of the accident, there were two male individuals that filled out witness statements,” the affidavit said. One driver wrote, “I was driving west bound on 9th Street when a red Ram 1500 struck a pole on my side of the road” the affidavit alleged.
The other driver alleged in his statement, “As I was driving west bound on 9th Street at approximately 3:30 pm between Thompson Ave. and Wilson, I spotted a red truck coming from east bound approaching my lane. As it continued to merge into my lane, I put my brakes on and pulled to the south side to avoid collision.
“The red truck continued east bound on 9th without slowing and crashed into a metal electricity pole — coming to a stop. I came to a stop, put hazards on went to the truck and attempted to get the driver to answer. At that time and without response, I opened the driver door and witnessed the driver moaning in pain. We called 911 and advised also needing EMS.”
The Cushing officer alleged in her affidavit, “While at the helipad, I was informed over the radio that the owner of the truck had showed up on scene of the accident. I then returned to the scene of the accident to make contact with him as the flight crew was loading up Hiltzman.”
The owner said that his truck had been stolen while he and his sister were in the back yard of their house and playing games when they heard the truck start up and saw it had been driven off, the affidavit alleged.
The vehicle owner said, “his phone was in the truck, so they were able to track it with GPS; they had also received another phone call from a friend that had seen his truck, and that was how they knew to come to the area of Thompson and 9th St.,” the affidavit alleged.
The owner said, “he believed there was insurance on the truck, but I told him the only one I saw in the truck had expired on the 4th of this month,” the officer wrote in her affidavit.
The truck owner’s sister later told the officer, “Calvin’s towing still had possession of the vehicle because they were not able to pay the $300 right now to have the truck released back to them. She told me that (her brother) was retrieving some personal items out of the truck though, as his phone and the keys were still in it, as well as assorted other property items,” the officer wrote in her affidavit.
She said, “Jerry Hiltzman was actually the stepfather of a female that (the truck owner) used to date,” the affidavit alleged.
The Cushing electrical department said, “it would be approximately $40,000 in property damage, as the electrical pole needed to be replaced,” the affidavit said.
The truck owner alleged in a statement that he and four others “were all in the back yard when Jerry Hiltzman came over around noon and asked to use the restroom. Time passed and they heard the truck start,” so he and another man went to the front yard to see the truck being driven off.
The truck owner “saw that his keys had been taken out of his room and were gone; at this time it was around 12. (He) was going to wait to call 911 to see if Jerry would return the truck, as this was not the first time Jerry had taken it before,” the affidavit alleged. The truck owner said that he wanted to press charges on Hiltzman, the affidavit said.
According to the state Department of Corrections, Hiltzman had previously been given probation for drug possession in Tulsa County in 1994 and placing body fluid on a government employee in Delaware County in 2019.
