(Stillwater, Okla.) — An ex-convict who reportedly said he was afraid to go back to prison has been ordered to appear in court Nov. 18 on charges including leaving the scene of three accidents in Stillwater while driving on a suspended license and attempting to elude a police officer near the OSU campus.
Due to his criminal record, former Cushing resident Jeff Mitchell Martin Jr., 26, of Stillwater, could be given as much as two life prison terms if convicted of his felony counts — attempting to elude and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident after two prior convictions. He remains free on $7,500 bond.
Martin was arrested at 1900 W. Farm Road on Sept. 10 at 6:09 p.m. four minutes after Stillwater Police Officer Charles Rivas saw his Impala “switch lanes in the middle of the intersection of Hall of Fame and Monroe from the outside lane to the inside lane, in doing so the Impala cut off a vehicle in the inside lane,” an affidavit said.
After the officer activated his lights at 1100 W. Hall of Fame for a traffic stop, he saw the Impala, which had a paper tag, accelerate, Rivas alleged in his affidavit.
“The driver of the Impala drove through the intersection of Hall of Fame and Cleveland driving approximately 50 miles per hour,” the affidavit alleged.
After the officer turned on his sirens, the Impala driver continued on Hall of Fame before turning south on McFarland where the Impala collided with the passenger side of a white pickup, the affidavit alleged.
“The driver of the Impala continued south on McFarland and approximately one yard south of the first collision, the driver of the Impala then collided with a green four-door sedan head-on,” the affidavit alleged.
When the Impala pulled up onto a curve while turning west into a parking lot, “I was unable to slow down enough to avoid colliding with the rear end of the white Impala,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
“After I collided with the back of the Impala, the vehicle continued rolling west in the parking lot. While the vehicle was still in motion, I observed a black male crawl out of the driver’s side window,” fall to the pavement, jump up and run south crossing Farm Road,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
“I threw my unit into park and initiated a foot pursuit of the black male,” who fell to the ground at 1900 W. Farm, the officer wrote in his affidavit.
“While searching the male, I asked him why he ran. He told me ‘I have warrants and when I saw you turn on your lights, I tried to get away.’
“He told me his mom called him and told him about his warrants and if he was stopped by cops, he would go back to prison. He told me the was scared to go back to prison so he tried to get away,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
Martin had two outstanding Payne County warrants for failure to appear in court, records show.
“Jeff (Martin) was complaining of breathing problems, pain in his right side, pain in his left hand and pain the right wrist,” so he was taken to the Stillwater Medical Center where he was examined and cleared to be incarcerated, the affidavit said.
According to state Department of Corrections records, Martin had been released from prison in March 2010 after serving about four and one-half months of a one-year sentence for second-degree burglary in Tulsa in 2009, to be followed by three years of probation.
Martin was also convicted in Payne County of car theft in Cushing in 2008, for which he was given a six-month jail term followed by two and one-half years of probation, court records show.
While he was on a suspended sentence in that case, on Jan. 27, 2011, Martin found a “HTC Android Smart phone,” left on top of an ATM machine at a convenience store in Cushing, court records show.
“Martin took the phone for his own use without making a reasonable effort to find the true owner of the phone in an effort to restore the property to the rightful owner,” who returned a few minutes later to find his phone was gone, DOC Probation Officer Chad Sneed wrote in a report to the court in 2011 – recommending that Martin’s probation be revoked to incarceration.
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