(Stillwater, Okla.) – A man accused of possessing a pickup that was allegedly stolen in Drumright from Koby Oilfield Service, as well as having methamphetamine in his jeans when he was arrested at a Cushing bar, was arraigned Friday from the Payne County Jail where he was being held on $20,000 bail.
Former Perkins resident James Leroy Fowler, 33, who was listed as homeless on his felony charges filed Thursday, could be given a 15-year prison term and $10,000 fine if convicted of possessing a stolen vehicle and methamphetamine.
Fowler was arrested at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Cin City Bar in Cushing, less than two hours after police were notified to be on the look-out for a stolen white 2013 Ford F-250 with the word, “Koby,” on the side, Cushing Police Sgt. Carson Watts wrote in an affidavit filed today.
Fifteen minutes after receiving a notice of the stolen truck, Cushing Police Officer Jonathan Hall located it at the Cin City Bar, but the word “Koby” had been painted over with black spray paint, the affidavit said.
At 12:10 a.m. Officers Hall and Watts positioned their patrol cars in front and back of the truck to block it from being driven away, the affidavit said.
“I then noticed that the passenger’s side of the windshield had a hole and excessive damage,” Watts wrote in his affidavit.
After Fowler was placed into investigative detention in the bar during the stolen truck investigation, “James immediately told me that he did not know what I was talking about because he had been dropped off at the bar,” Watts wrote in his affidavit
“As we were walking outside, Officer Hall asked the people James was with if he had any property that belonged to him,” and a woman “picked up a keychain with a Ford key from the table and said, ‘Here are his keys,’” which Hall took possession of, Watts wrote in his affidavit. Outside the bar, “James kept telling me that he had been dropped off at the bar,” Watts wrote in his affidavit.
“I then pressed the unlock button on the key that was given to me, and it unlocked the vehicle in question,” Watts wrote in the affidavit.
“James then changed his story and told me that David Willis, the reporting party, had allowed him to borrow the vehicle. James said that David had given him $20 and let him borrow a pair of boots and a shirt as well,” the affidavit said.
“I asked James how the damage to the windshield occurred, and he told me that while driving down 9th Street to Cushing from Drumright, he hit a sign. I asked James if he had spray-painted the side of the vehicle.
“James said that it was not spray-painted when he had the vehicle and believed that someone else had painted it while at the bar because a lot of people don’t like the Koby business,” Watts wrote in his affidavit.
The woman, who had given police the keys to the truck, said that she arrived at the Cushing bar at 8:45 p.m., about the same time as Fowler, the affidavit said.
She said at about 9:30 pm. “James gave her the key to the truck for her to drive, telling her it was his and they left to go to the Broken J Bar north of Cushing on Highway 18,” where they stayed for about 30 minutes before returning back to the Cin City Bar, the affidavit alleged.
After Fowler was arrested for possessing a stolen truck, “while I was retrieving property from James’ pockets, I found a small blue plastic baggy containing a clear crystal substance,” that field-tested as methamphetamine, Watts alleged in his affidavit.
“I asked James about the baggy and he claimed to know nothing about it because the pants belonged to his ‘old lady.’ “I asked James, ‘You’re wearing women’s jeans?’ and he said yes,” Watts wrote in his affidavit.
Two weeks before his arrest at the Cushing bar, Fowler had appeared in court on charges of threatening harm to a man by phone and shoving a woman on the porch of her Cushing residence, both on Oct. 23, court records show.
At the time of his arrest this week, Fowler had been free on $5,000 bond with an order to have no contact with those alleged victims, court records show.
If convicted of all of his charges, Fowler could be incarcerated for 16 years plus four months, and fined $11,600, court records show.
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