(Stillwater, Okla.) — An ex-convict from Pawnee has been given a two-year prison term by a Payne County judge, who ordered him to pay $5,057 restitution for breaking into his former employer’s business south of Cushing from which tools and credit cards were stolen.
Elmer Eugene Way Jr., 33, avoided a September jury trial in Payne County District Court by pleading guilty Friday to second-burglary of Industrial Maintenance Contractor Co. in 2008 — the day after he was fired for misuse of the company credit card, court records show.
As part of a plea bargain, Way must serve three years of probation on his release from prison, under District Judge Donald Worthington’s order Friday.
Two days after the burglary, one of the stolen credit cards was used at the Pawnee Nation Travel Plaza in Pawnee County, security camera film showed, according to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy George Disel.
A stolen credit card was also used at the Mini Mart Service Station at 609 E. Main Street in Cushing on the same day, another security camera film showed, the affidavit said.
When the Payne County sheriff’s deputy called Way and told him to meet him at the victim’s office with all the stolen property, Way did so, the affidavit said.
Way admitted that he went into an unlocked door at his former employer’s shop from which he stole a generator and chainsaw, then used a knife to open the lock on the office building from which he stole credit cards and a Dewalt Drill, the affidavit said.
Way told the deputy that he had burglarized his former employer’s business on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008, and used a stolen credit card the following Monday in Cushing and at the Pawnee Nation Travel Plaza, the affidavit said.
At the time of the Cushing business burglary, Way was serving the probationary part of a 10-year sentence for concealing stolen property in Creek County in 2000, a felony for which he had been incarcerated in prison for about three years, state Department of Corrections records show.
Way also was convicted of larceny from a house and false declaration of ownership in pawn, both in 1999 in Creek County, DOC records show.
Way also was convicted of passing bogus checks in 1999 in Payne County, DOC records show.
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