(Stillwater, Okla.) — A former Drumright man with multiple convictions for property crimes has been charged in Payne County District Court with stealing a 20-foot Texas Pride dump trailer with four-foot sides in Stillwater.
An arrest warrant was issued last week in the theft that occurred more than a year ago for Billy Joe Avey, 41, of Mannford, who was not in the Payne County Jail on Monday afternoon, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
Due to his extensive criminal record, Avey could be given a prison term of six years to life if convicted of grand larceny after 11 former felony convictions, court records show.
The owner of the stolen dump trailer told Stillwater police last month that she was contacted by the police chief in Perry where Avey had previously lived, “who advised her Avey was the person in the surveillance video she had posted on Facebook,” an affidavit alleged.
“After comparing the mug shot (in jail records) to the surveillance video of the burglary, it was my opinion that Avey was indeed the person who had stolen the trailer,” Stillwater Police Officer David Adney wrote in an affidavit filed last week.
Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Nack “stated he has had numerous encounters with Avey and had recently spoken with Special Agent Ryan Hensley of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture,” who “was working on multiple cases against Avey involving stolen trailers,” the affidavit said.
“Special Agent Hensley stated he had tied Avey to a stolen dump trailer in Perkins that had been stolen from Prague, Oklahoma,” and was sold to a pawn shop by Avey, but the serial number had been incorrectly written on the bill of sale, the affidavit alleged.
“Special Agent Hensley stated he was working on getting a search warrant for Avey’s residence in order to collect additional evidence and would contact me if the trailer was discovered during the warrant,” the Stillwater police officer wrote in his affidavit.
“Avey had been ticketed by OHP on May 24, 2016, in Perry, Oklahoma, for failure to carry insurance verification after being stopped for speeding,” the affidavit said.
“According to court documents, Avey was driving a dark green 1993 GMC pickup which is the same make, model and color of the vehicle used to steal the trailer in the surveillance video. This incident happened only two months prior to the theft of the trailer,” the affidavit alleged.
According to state Department of Corrections and court records, Avey was previously convicted of 11 counts of knowingly concealing stolen property:
*one count in Creek County in 2007, for which he was given a four-year prison term in 2009 that he began serving in 2011 and was paroled in April 2013 after serving about two years;
*10 separate counts in Payne County in 2004, for which he was given in 2006 10 concurrent two-year suspended sentences except nine months in jail.
***
