(Stillwater, Okla.) — One of the two ex-convicts accused of possessing 30 feet of cut copper wire stolen from Current Electric in Cushing pleaded guilty Friday and was given a 180-day jail term in accordance with a plea bargain.
Gary Ray Hiltzman, 44, of Cushing, told District Judge Phillip Corley in court Friday that he knew the crime carried up to life in prison due to his criminal record.
On prosecutor Mike Kulling’s recommendation, Hiltzman was given a 10-year prison term, all of which was suspended except 180 days in the Payne County Jail.
Hiltzman was ordered to perform 75 hours of community service within 12 months of his release from jail, to pay the cost of his incarceration, to have an alcohol and drug evaluation and to perform any recommended follow-up, along with paying a $500 fine and $250 to the victims’ compensation fund.
His co-defendant, Brian Keith Stafford, 41, of Cushing, who remains in the Payne County Jail, was scheduled to appear in court this week on the charge.
The pair were arrested in April after Cushing Police Officer Justin Sappington contacted them while they were walking at Main Place and Seay Avenue, according to an affidavit by Interim Cushing Police Chief Tully Folden.
“Sappington later seized several pieces of cut copper wire, which Stafford said they found in a dumpster behind the Buckhorn Bar, 122 W. Broadway,” the affidavit said.
Sappington then checked the area but was unable to determine the owner of the copper wire; however, the officer photographed Hiltzman and Stafford, along with a backpack containing a hacksaw, and the copper wire, the affidavit said.
Folden conducted a follow-up investigation on April 9 in an attempt to locate the owner of the copper wire, the affidavit said.
After checking various locations, Folden checked a building at 213 N. Cleveland, which is owned by Current Electric, the affidavit said.
Police entered the building through an open window just to the south of which Folden saw a spool of wire matching the recovered wire, the affidavit said.
“I observed the cut end of the wire, which was resting on the spool, along with copper shavings where the wire had been cut,” Folden wrote in his affidavit.
“I also matched the information on the copper sleeve of the recovered copper wire to that of the spool at 213 N. Cleveland, which matched,” Folden said.
A Current Electric employee said that no one had permission to enter the building or to take anything from it, including the copper wire, the affidavit said.
That same day, “Sgt. Ford and Ofc. Watts interviewed Hltzman at the police department. During the interview, Hiltzman admitted that he and Stafford entered the building located at 213 N. Cleveland where they cut and later took several pieces of copper wire,” the affidavit alleged.
Stafford was convicted of child endangerment in the Drumright division of Creek County District Court in 2003, of methamphetamine possession in Payne County in 2005, and of drunk driving in 2006 in Payne County, state Department of Corrections records show.
Stafford was released from prison in 2008 after serving one year and eight months of a five-year prison term for drunk driving. He remains on probation on his other convictions, DOC records show.
Hiltzman was convicted of second-degree burglary, attempted second-degree burglary, failure to comply with a personal recognizance bond, knowingly concealing stolen property, car theft and second-degree burglary, all in 1993 in Tulsa County, DOC records show.
Hiltzman was also convicted of carrying things into prison to aid escape in 1995 in Tulsa County and released from prison in 1997, DOC records show.
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