By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man, who is on pre-release supervision from prison on multiple drug convictions, and a Cushing woman have been jailed on charges of trafficking methamphetamine in Payne County.
Thomas Clayton Ralston, 35, who got out of prison two years ago, has been ordered held on $100,000 bail pending a preliminary hearing on June 29.
Ralston’s associate, Amylynn Zelma Rodgers, 42, has been ordered held on $10,000 bail pending her preliminary hearing on June 30, court records show.
If convicted of drug trafficking, each could be imprisoned for 10 years to life and fined $25,000 to $100,000, court records show.
The pair were arrested at 56th Street and Highway 18 in Cushing after a traffic stop at 12:33 am on May 25 by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Dalton Ross, according to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers.
“At this time, Stillwater Detective Adam Elliott, who was on scene, was requested to deploy his K9 partner Rotex to do a free air sniff around the vehicle. Rotex alerted to the presence of drugs on the driver’s side cab area of the truck. We began a search of the truck not finding any drugs.
“Dispatch advised Thomas’ Oklahoma Driver’s License was revoked,” and he was arrested by Deputy Ross, the affidavit said.
“I went back and spoke with Amylynn. I noticed a large bulge in her shirt above her breast line. I asked her what she had in her shirt. She pushed the bulge down and I could hear the sound of a plastic bag being compressed.
“I told her to give me what she had concealed, and she gave me a half sandwich bag containing two large shards of crystal substance that appeared to be, through my training and experience, methamphetamine,” which had a gross weight including baggies of 56 grams, the sheriff’s investigator alleged in his affidavit.
When Rodgers was interviewed in the sheriff’s office by the investigator and Deputy Ross, “She said the drugs were hers and she paid for them. She said they were at the Stone Wolf Casino located off of Hwy. 18 just north of the Cimarron Turnpike. Thomas took her to (a) residence located in Tulsa to purchase methamphetamine.
“She said that Thomas knew that she was going to purchase drugs from (a man there.) She said that she has been to Tulsa and purchased drugs from (him) probably 10 times. She admitted to selling drugs in Cushing and she said that the methamphetamine she bought was going to be split with an acquaintance. She told me that she would have shared the drugs she purchased with Thomas,” the investigator alleged in his affidavit.
According to the state Department of Corrections, Thomas served about three years and three months in prison on multiple drug convictions in Payne and Oklahoma counties before being released in March of 2019 to supervision.
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