(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County arrest warrant has been issued for an ex-convict accused of throwing contraband, described as two packages containing 15 cell phones, 14 phone chargers and 11.6 ounces of tobacco, over a fence at the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing.
Cody Robert Mathews, 24, of Glenpool, who has been sought for nearly two months by Tulsa County authorities for failure to appear in court there on a criminal charge, was not in the Payne County Jail on Monday, a sheriff’s deputy said.
Mathews had gotten out of prison almost two years ago after serving about half of two concurrent four-year sentences for drug possession in Rogers County in 2010, state Department of Corrections records show.
Mathews was placed on five years’ probation last summer for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in Tulsa County in 2013, DOC records show.
Cushing Police Officer Rachel Hentges was sent to the private prison about 3:30 p.m. July 18 on a report that an occupant of a vehicle “had thrown contraband over the fence at Cimarron Correctional Facility,” according to her affidavit filed last week.
A prison guard said that the suspect was last seen traveling north on Little Avenue in a gray Dodge Charger, which was stopped by the Cushing officer in the 500 block of E. 9th Street a few minutes later, the affidavit said.
“As the vehicle came to a stop, I observed the front passenger door open and a white male began running south through several properties,” climbing over several fences and running into a wooded area between Thompson Avenue and Little Avenue, south of 9th Street, the officer wrote in her affidavit.
“Officers seached the area, but the suspect was not located,” the affidavit said.
The driver said that the man who fled from her vehicle was named Cody, that she did not know him, but he said he was from Tulsa and she gave him a ride to the prison from Drumright, the affidavit alleged.
She said that he had a bag with him, but she thought it was his clothing, the affidavit said. She said when she got to the prison, she parked and he got out of her car — left the door open and moments later got back into the car.
She said “Cody told her he could not visit because he had forgotten his identification,” the affidavit said. She said he directed her to turn south onto Kings Highway and east onto 745 Road, immediately south of the prison, the affidavit said.
She said when she turned north on Little Avenue, she saw the patrol car turn around and follow her, the affidavit said. She said she told the man and he became very nervous, the affidavit said.
The driver said that when the Cushing officer activated her emergency lights, “Cody told her not to stop and to keep going,” the affidavit alleged.
The driver said that she pulled over, “but before she got the car stopped, Cody opened the car door and began running,” the affidavit alleged.
During the traffic stop, the driver called her friend, who had asked her to give Cody a ride, and demanded his last name, which she was told was Mathews, the affidavit alleged.
She “denied any prior knowledge of Mathews’ plan to throw the items over the prison fence and any further involvement other than driving him to the prison for what she believed was a visit with an inmate,” the affidavit alleged.
The prison guard told the Cushing officer that 15 cell phones, 14 phone chargers and 11.6 ounces of tobacco were found in packages thrown over the fence, the affidavit said. The packages were bound with camouflaged duct tape with grass stuck to the tape around the seams to help conceal them, the affidavit said.
A prison employee said that he was working outside with two contractors on an overhead door “when he was alerted by one of them that someone had thrown a package over the fence,” the affidavit said.
The prison employee said “he turned around and observed a subject throw two more packages over the fence,” the affidavit said. His description of the man who “then jogged back to a gray Dodge Charger,” matched the description of the man who ran from the woman’s car and from the officer’s traffic stop, the affidavit said.
About seven hours later, the Cushing police officer was sent to the Maveric Mini Mart at 501 E. 9th regarding the suspect who fled from her earlier traffic stop, the affidavit said.
An employee had called police to report she believed the man who fled from officers earlier in the day had just been at the convenience store and asked for a ride, the affidavit said. The employee said “he remarked that he was from Tulsa and trying to get back,” the affidavit said.
“Officers were unable to locate the suspect,” the affidavit said.
But the next day, Cushing Police Officer Matt Piatt said he spoke to her and another woman who saw and talked to the suspect the previous night, the affidavit said.
The witnesses “used Google images searching ‘Tulsa County booking photos’ and located a photo of a man named Cody Mathews,” which was the name that the driver had given police, the affidavit alleged.
When the name, “Cody Mathews” was searched on Facebook, witnesses “both identified Mathews as the individual who was at the store and spoke with them the night before,” the affidavit alleged.
One witness said “the tattoos on the individual in the pictures on Cody Mathews’ Facebook account were identical to the ones on the individual she spoke with at the Maveric Mini Mart,” the affidavit alleged.
When the Cushing officer looked at photos on the Cody Mathews’ Facebook account, she positively identified him as the suspect who ran from her on the July 18 traffic stop, the affidavit alleged.
On July 21, the driver came to the Cushing Police Station to see a photo line-up in which she identified Mathews, the affidavit alleged.
Further research into Mathews’ criminal record showed he has an outstanding arrest warrant from Tulsa County on charges of malicious injury to property and obstructing an officer, the affidavit said.If convicted of bringing contraband into a yard at the Cimarron Correctional Facility, Mathews could be given a two-year prison term and a $2,500 fine, court records show.
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