(Stillwater, Okla.) – An Oklahoma City man was given two concurrent 12-year prison terms Friday for possessing drugs when he transported a woman to Stillwater for prostitution in November 2013, and for concealing a stolen handgun in Stillwater in January 2013.
Markeese Karea’Shawn Phelps, 25, who has also used the surname Ward, was also given a concurrent 10-year prison term Friday for giving a false name at the time of his arrest by Perkins police on a traffic stop in October 2013.
As part of a plea bargain, all of Phelps’ sentences for Payne County crimes were ordered to run concurrently to a 14-year prison term he is currently serving in the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing for drug possession in Lawton in August 2014.
Phelps was originally arrested in November 2013 in Stillwater by an undercover agent with the Human Trafficking Division of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, court records show. He was subsequently released on bail, court records show.
The agent had contacted a female escort from a listing posting on an Internet website known as backpage.com, an affidavit said.
Phelps had dropped off the woman in front of a hotel in Stillwater for the purpose of commercial sex, the affidavit said.
During the encounter between the undercover agent and the woman, she communicated with Phelps on a cell phone, the affidavit said.
“Upon approaching Phelps’ vehicle, members of the surveillance team observed Phelps attempting to discard a cellular mobile device used in communicating,” with the woman while she was in the room with the undercover agent, the affidavit said.
“Members of the surveillance team also observed Phelps with a stack of cellular mobile devices in his lap and marijuana on the dashboard. In addition, prescription narcotic pills were also discovered in the vehicle Phelps was driving,” the affidavit said.
Phelps was transported to the Stillwater City Jail on complaints of pandering and transporting a person for prostitution, as well as drug possession, the affidavit said.
In court Friday, Phelps admitted possessing drugs, for which he was given a 12-year prison term, and transporting a woman for prostitution, for which he was given a concurrent one-year jail term.
Phelps also admitted Friday that he had given a false name to Perkins Police Lt. Jason Galt in October 2013 during a traffic stop. For false personation of another, Phelps was given a 10-year prison term, with a concurrent 30-day jail term for driving without a valid license.
Phelps also admitted Friday that he had knowingly concealed in Stillwater in January 2013 a 9 mm handgun that had been stolen in Oklahoma City, for which he was given a 12-year prison term.
According to the state Department of Corrections, Phelps has been held in the Cushing prison for the past nine months while serving a 14-year prison term, followed by six years of probation, for drug possession in Comanche County in 2014.
DOC records show that Phelps was previously convicted of:
* carrying a weapon, drugs or alcohol into jail in Oklahoma County in 2012, for which he was placed on 15 years’ probation;
* possession of contraband in a penal institution in Oklahoma County in 2010, for which he served about four months of a one-year prison term;
* drug trafficking in Oklahoma County in 2007, for which he was given five months’ incarceration in 2011;
* unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in Oklahoma County in 2007, for which he was given a concurrent five months’ incarceration in 2011;
* second-degree burglary in Oklahoma County in 2007, for which he was given a seven-year prison term in 2011, of which he served about 16 months.
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