By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Perkins man has been charged with possessing a loaded assault rifle and revolver in his truck while he was on probation for multiple felonies.
Emmett Earl Phillips, 28, claimed “the guns weren’t his and he wasn’t aware of them,” Perkins Police Officer Daryn Zanfardino wrote in an affidavit.
Phillips, who remains free on $10,000 bail pending a court appearance on Dec. 1, had been released from prison three years ago to probation.
Phillips was arrested at 8:51 pm on Oct. 19, 13 minutes after a traffic stop for an inoperable middle brake lamp on the top of his truck, an affidavit alleged.
“While speaking with Phillips, I looked into the back seat cab area of the truck and observed what appeared to be an AR-15 style rifle in plain view. This prompted me to ask Phillips if there were any weapons in the vehicle and he stated ‘no.’
“I asked Phillips if there was an AR-15 in the back seat, and he said, ‘Ah, s…, I just picked up the vehicle,"” from a man, the Perkins officer alleged in his affidavit.
“I asked Phillips who the guns belonged to and he stated that he wasn’t sure. I asked him who the truck belonged to and he stated that it was his and that he had just hopped in it from someone borrowing it,” the Perkins officer wrote in his affidavit.
During a search of the truck, “I was able to confirm that it was an AR-15 that had a loaded magazine in it. Once the bolt was pulled back, a round was ejected from the chamber of the rifle indicating that it was loaded during transport,” Zanfardino alleged in his affidavit.
Perkins Police Officer Shane Dean “handed me a Heritage Rough Rider revolver that he had located behind the front passenger’s seat. I checked the cylinder of the revolver and observed that there were cartridges in them,” Zanfardino alleged in his affidavit.
“Phillips stated that he was unaware that the firearms were in the vehicle,” the affidavit said. Phillips said that he believed the assault rifle belonged to a friend and that the revolver belonged to an ex-girlfriend or a relative, both of whom had been in the truck a couple days prior, the affidavit alleged.
According to Payne County court records and the state Department of Corrections, in August of 2016 Phillips was given four concurrent three-year prison terms, of which he served about six months, followed by probation for attempting to elude in 2015, second-degree burglary in 2011, grand larceny in 2011, and concealing stolen property in 2011.
Phillips also had been given probation in Kay County for domestic abuse in 2009 and drunk driving in 2012, DOC records show.
If convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, Phillips could be given a prison term of one to 10 years, court records show.
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