By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A former Cushing man has been charged with leaving methamphetamine inside a sugar packet reportedly as a tip for a waitress at a Stillwater restaurant.
Walter Kenneth “Kenny” Pool, 41, of Perkins, was arrested Wednesday and freed on $10,000 bail pending his arraignment this afternoon, court records show.
Stillwater Police Officer Justin Sappington was sent at 5:55 a.m. on Aug. 21 to a restaurant regarding possibly found narcotics, according to his affidavit filed last week.
A waitress said that when she cashed out a couple, the man told her, “The rest of your tip is inside the sugar packet,” according to the officer’s affidavit.
When the couple left, the waitress said she dumped in her hand the sugar packet’s contents, which she believed to be methamphetamine, the affidavit alleged.
“She subsequently gave the packet and its contents to her manager, who locked it in the back office,” the affidavit alleged.
“She stated she observed the two suspects enter a newer model Jeep SUV,” the affidavit alleged.
“The manager later advised he would attempt to secure security footage of the suspects,” who had paid in cash, the affidavit said.
“I collected the sugar packet, which is described as a small pink paper packet that contained several small clear crystalline rocks,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
The next day at 12:20 a.m., the waitress said “she had received a Facebook message from the male suspect who left the methamphetamine at her table last night,” the affidavit alleged. The waitress “stated the man’s name is Kenny Pool,” the affidavit alleged.
The waitress read to the officer a message from her phone that said, “I apologize for the mix-up with who I thought you were. You worked at country c that’s how I knew you. I hope the tip helped you this morning,” the affidavit alleged.
The waitress “took screenshots of the message and the profile page for Kenny Pool and sent them to me via email,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
Asked if she believed the man shown in the Facebook profile was the suspect from the previous night, the waitress said “she was 100% sure that was the same person,” the affidavit alleged.
The waitress said “Pool only left her a $3.10 tip last night to further solidify the fact that the ‘tip’ referred to in the message was actually talking about the methamphetamine left behind,” the affidavit alleged.
Due to Pool’s criminal record, he could be given a prison sentence of six years to life if convicted of unlawful delivery of a controlled drug after four prior felony convictions.
According to court records and the state Department of Corrections, Pool had previously been convicted of:
* drug manufacture in Lincoln County in 2012 when he lived in Cushing for which he was given a 10-year prison term with the balance suspended on completion of the Bill Johnson Drug Offender Work Camp, which he apparently finished in October of 2013;
* passing bogus checks in Payne County in 2002 for which he was given a two-year prison term in 2003 followed by five years of probation;
* kidnapping in Osage County in 1995 for which he was given a five-year prison term followed by five years of probation;
* attempted armed robbery in Osage County in 1995 for which he was given a concurrent two-year prison term.
