(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man who pleaded guilty Friday to breaking into Dodrill’s Museum in Cushing in January remains in the Payne County Jail pending his sentencing on April 20 before Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler.
Asked why he committed the crime, Lewis Allen Summers Jr., 37, said “he was strung out on dope and addicted to meth,” Cushing Police Detective Adam Harp wrote in an affidavit.
“Summers said that he also took the property because he was trying to get a place to stay,” for himself and a woman, the affidavit said.
The museum’s owner, Richard Dodrill, “reported that an old six-shot black powder replica revolver, several rocks and about $10 were missing from the business that he noticed at that time.
“Dodrill reported that the rocks were taken from the shelf, but were not valued pieces and that the money was taken from the fish tank where money is donated for the museum,” the Cushing detective wrote in his affidavit.
“On Feb. 10, 2012, I received information from a reliable source that Lewis Summers aka ‘LA’ was responsible for breaking into the Dodrill’s Museum and taking a revolver, long rifle, money from the fish tank and a cowboy hat,” the detective wrote in his affidavit.
The following day, Summers was arrested in Stillwater on Payne County warrants, the affidavit said.
Four days later, the Cushing police detective interviewed Summers at the Payne County Sheriff’s Department.
“Summers admitted that he at one time had the replica revolver, telescope, pellet rifle and cowboy hat, but said that a male by the name of Sideshow had given him the property — that he was responsible for the burglary.
“Sideshow was located and interviewed and denied any involvement in the burglary,” the affidavit said.
Nine days later, the detective re-interviewed Summers in jail and told him that based on follow-up interviews, “I felt that he was not being completely honest in this investigation,” Harp wrote in his affidavit.
Summers then admitted that he broke into the Dodrill’s Museum by using a hammerhead to break the front glass door at about midnight, the affidavit said.
“Summers admitted that he took about $10 in cash from the fish bowl. Summers said that he took the pellet rifle that was up against the wall, telescope which was located on a shelf in the hallway, cowboy hat located in the front corner area and the replica revolver from the shelf,” the affidavit said.
Summers said that he was in the museum for two or three minutes before leaving through the back door and putting the stolen property outside the nearby residence of his girlfriend’s relative between the garage and the house, the affidavit said.
“Summers said that the next day that he stashed the stolen property at the abandoned apartment that they were staying by placing them underneath the mattresses.
“Summers said that he later pawned the telescope and pellet rifle. Summers said that he kept the straw cowboy hat and sold the replica revolver to Red because he knew that he liked guns,” the affidavit said.
Summers said that he got $50 for the replica revolver, which was recovered along with the cowboy hat, the affidavit said.
The pellet rifle was sold to a Stillwater pawn shop and the telescope/surveying tool was sold to another Stillwater pawn shop, the affidavit said.
In addition to pleading guilty to the museum break-in, Summers also admitted passing six bogus checks totaling $4,124 between May and August of 2011, on Payne County Bank in Perkins.
Summers also pleaded guilty to obstructing a Stillwater police officer investigating a report of two individuals rummaging through an incinerated house on Nov. 6, 2011, by giving a false surname.
Summers also pleaded guilty to driving a pickup truck at Highway 51 and Fairgrounds Road in Stillwater on a suspended license, on May 14, 2011. As part of a plea bargain, two other counts of obstructing an officer and failing to wear a seatbelt were dropped Friday.
Another charge of dumping trash on public property one-quarter mile west of 19th and Mount Vernon Roads in Payne County on June 8, 2011, was dropped in the plea bargain Friday.
Summers has a plea bargain to be given a sentence of 180 days in the Payne County Jail, followed by seven years of probation for the Dodrill’s Musuem break-in –along with an order to pay restitution and a $100 fine.
Summers’ plea bargain also calls for him to pay $5,996 restitution in his bogus check case and to serve six months in jail on his other charges.
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