(Stillwater) — An ex-convict has been accused of breaking into a neighbor’s home in rural Perkins from which six guns, two cameras, a welder, pocket knives and jewelry including a child’s crucifix necklace were reportedly stolen last week.
Shane Braught, 32, whose surname is listed as Cunningham and age as 31 on state Department of Corrections records, completed his latest prison terms about three years ago, DOC records show.
Braught was arrested and jailed last week following an extensive investigation by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Nack, who tracked shoe prints from the burglary victims’ home to a residence where Braught and a 12-year-old boy were living, according to an affidavit.
The boy, who was interviewed with his guardian’s consent, “advised that yesterday, he and Shane went to the neighbor’s house. He was supposed to be a ‘lookout,"” an affidavit by Nack alleged.
“Both he and Shane went through a back window and stole items to include guns, jewelry, pocket knives and a welder from the shop,” the boy told the deputy, according to the affidavit.
“He then provided me with a small gold crucifix on a gold chain. He also provided me with a bag of pennies, which Shane gave him from the change jars,” Nack alleged in his affidavit.
“He was given a pocket knife also that was taken from the burglary. He broke the knife, which was thrown away. However, a golden eagle emblem from that knife was not. This was given to me,” Nack wrote in his affidavit.
The boy also said that “Shane changed shoes in between trips next door, which explained the three sets,” of shoe prints, the affidavit alleged.
The boy also “provided me with a pair of his shoes that he wore during this event,” Nack wrote in his affidavit.
“The victims of the burglary identified all three recovered items,” the affidavit said.
While conducting his initial investigation on April 13, the deputy had noticed “small shoe prints in the rear of the house, very near the back window that was used to gain entrance,” the affidavit said.
The deputy saw that the same small print, along with two other sets of prints, went to a house directly north of the victim’s home, the affidavit alleged.
When Braught was interviewed by the deputy the first time, Braught said that he and the boy walked down the road to a store, the affidavit said.
“His initial statement was that he had no knowledge of any break-in, nor did they go in the neighbor’s yard,” the affidavit said.
Casts were made of two of the tracks located going from the victim’s house to the neighbor’s house, Nack wrote in his affidavit.
When the deputy returned later that day and spoke further with Braught, the suspect said this time that on the way to the store, he and the boy were pitching a bottle back and forth at each other, the affidavit said. “During so, it was tossed in the neighbor’s yard. They retrieved it,” Braught told the deputy, the affidavit said.
The next day, the deputy went back to the victims’ home to study the shoe and boot prints further, the affidavit said.
“It was clear that by the number of the tracks that numerous trips were made back and forth,” all leading back to the house where Braught was living, the affidavit said.
Prints were located “in the rear of the house, near the shop and near the back residence window, not in a location consistent with a path to retrieve a poorly tossed bottle from the roadway,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
“I then looked for tracks leading to the store, which the suspect stated he walked to initially,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
While following the tracks, the deputy found a purse near the edge of a bridge submerged in the creek, the affidavit said.
The purse was recovered and identified by the burglary victim as one of her handbags, the affidavit said.
The deputy then returned to Braught’s residence to again interview him, but he was not at home, the affidavit said.
However, the deputy was able to talk to the 12-year-old boy, the affidavit said.
In seeking an arrest warrant for Braught, the deputy wrote that he believed Braught committed the crime “and further influenced the 12-year-old to aid in it.”
According to DOC records, Braught has six felony convictions from Muskogee County:
* possession of an explosive in 1995 for which he initially got probation, but later received a 10-year prison term in 2001;
* second-degree burglary in 1996 for which he initially got probation, but later was incarcerrated in 1997;
* grand larceny in 1997 for which he received a five-year prison term;
* grand larceny in 2001 for which he received a five-year prison term;
* obtaining money by false pretenses in 2001 for which he received a five-year prison term;
* possession of a stolen credit or debit card in 2001 for which he received a five-year prison term.
