(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man, who is a convicted child molester, was given a 15-year prison term Wednesday for robbing a Cushing convenience store with a gun that he had stolen from a former employer’s truck.
Aaron Scott Halencak, 28, who has been jailed since his arrest a month after the hold-up, was given a concurrent seven-year prison term Wednesday for the truck burglary.
Halencak had pleaded guilty to both crimes without an agreement with the prosecution regarding his sentence, which was decided by District Judge Phillip Corley on Wednesday.
The case was investigated by Cushing Police Sgt. Adam Harp, who was sent with Cushing Police Officer Rachel Hentges to the Maveric Mini Mart on Cherry Street about 7:45 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2013, regarding a robbery, court records show.
The victim “was visibly shaken and said that she had her back turned to the door behind the counter, and when she turned around that she had a customer with a gun pointed in her face,” Harp wrote in an affidavit.
The victim said the robber appeared to be white “from what she could see because he was wearing a black bandana over his face with a black jacket-type hoodie,” the affidavit said.
The victim said the robber “told her to give him all the money out of the drawer, which she did, and then after she gave him the money asked her to lift the drawer tray up to see if she had any money underneath the drawer, which she did not,” the affidavit said.
She said the robber took $339.81 in cash and left the store eastbound on foot, the affidavit said.
According to a pre-sentencing report compiled for the judge by state Probation and Parole Officer Billy Laster, when the victim was asked what sentence she wanted for Halencak, “she stated ‘don’t let him out."”
“She reported she quit her job because of Halencak’s actions. She was out of work for one and a half months,” the report said.
“When asked if she sustained any psychological damages, she reported she saw her doctor and was placed on anxiety medication.
“Furthermore, she stated she made changes to her lifestyle as she could not be left alone, as she always wanted people around her for safety,” after the armed robbery, the report said.
According to the police affidavit, the store’s security footage showed a slender man, between 6′ and 6’5″ — wearing gloves with a semi-automatic handgun in his right hand — had a black-colored hoodie over his head, a black bandana over his face, and a stocking cap during the robbery.
“Through Chief Folden’s investigation of a different robbery, information was developed that Aaron Halencak may have been the person that committed the robbery at the Maveric Mini Mart,” the affidavit said.
A month later when the Cushing police chief and the sergeant went to a Stillwater residence to talk to Halencak, “I began to ask Aaron questions about the robbery, and he told me that it was not him,” the sergeant wrote in his affidavit.
“I told Aaron that based upon the information that we received and listening to the audio from the robbery that I believed that it was in fact his voice, since I am familiar with him,” Harp wrote in his affidavit.
“While speaking with Aaron, he admitted that he was the person that committed the robbery at the Maveric Mini Mart in December of 2013.
“Aaron said that he needed money so that he could drive to California to see his six-year-old daughter,” Harp wrote in his affidavit.
“Aaron said that he picked the Maveric Mini Mart because it was small and that he knew no one would be in there to get hurt and just didn’t think about it — that it just happened,” the affidavit said.
“Based upon our investigation, it was believed that the gun that Aaron used during this robbery was stolen that morning,” about 6 a.m. at the Ice House on Main Street in Cushing where Halencak had been employed previously, the affidavit said.
“Aaron said that he went inside the (convenience) store and demanded all the money from the clerk by pointing a gun at the clerk.
“Aaron said that he did not intend to hurt the clerk and that the gun was not loaded and did not have the clip (magazine) in the gun,” the affidavit said.
Halencak said that after he robbed the store he went to his house in Cushing and “finished packing and left for California that night to see his daughter,” the affidavit said.
“I asked Aaron what he did with the dark-colored zip-up hoodie that he was wearing during the robbery and he said that he threw it out of the car somewhere on Ninth Street.
“Aaron said that he was in California for six days, and returned to Cushing,” Harp wrote in his affidavit.
While the Cushing police sergeant was in the process of obtaining an arrest warrant for Halencak, Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Nack “made contact with Aaron because he thought he was going to flee,” the affidavit said.
Halencak, who was arrested by the sheriff’s deputy, “admitted to Deputy Nack that he robbed the Maveric Mini Mart with the stolen gun,” and provided the hoodie that he said he wore during the robbery, the affidavit said.
According to the pre-sentencing report, Halencak was 18 when he was convicted of sex with a minor child in Fresno, California, the city where he was born.
Halencak, who spent time in foster homes after he and his brother were removed from his mother’s custody, has a ninth grade education from a school in Memphis, Tenn., the report said.
After he moved to Oklahoma, he worked at a business in Drumright between March 2010 and May 2011, when he was terminated, the report said.
He subsequently worked at a fast-food restaurant in Stroud and a restaurant in Cushing. He worked for six months in 2013 at E-Z Ice in Cushing, the report said. His supervisor there was his victim in the truck burglary, the report said.
Prior to his arrest he worked for four months in construction, the report said.
Halencak described a long record of drug use, beginning at age 9 when he tried marijuana, the report said.
“He reported his alcohol consumption to the point of intoxication, marijuana and amphetamine use to be more than 50 times in his life, the report said.
Halencak reported to have used cocaine, hallucinogens, barbiturates and tranquilizers between one to 10 times in his life, the report said.
“Halencak stated he didn’t try methamphetamine until he was introduced to it by an ex-girlfriend a couple of years ago,” the report said.
“Halencak makes mention when he was growing up he was molested and raped,” by a male, the report said.
Halencak said, “I do not want to go into detail so please accept that. I will say I was totally messed up mentally after that, which I’m sure has something to do with my own sex offense,” the report said.
During an interview with the officer who compiled the pre-sentencing report, “Halencak stated multiple times he was sorry for his actions and desires to ‘pay back the people he has wronged."”
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