By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County jury deliberated nearly eight hours before convicting a woman from Georgia of stealing her 6-year-old daughter in DHS custody from a foster home in rural Stillwater and acquitting her of possessing a gun in the process.
The jury of eight men and four women recommended that Samantha Siong Ricks, 47, who testified at her trial, be given a nine-month jail term and $250 fine for child stealing, a felony punishable by as much as a 10-year prison term and $500 fine.
District Judge Phillip Corley gave Ricks, who had been jailed on $75,000 bail since her arrest at 3:18 pm on Aug. 6, 2022, the jury-recommended sentence on Friday — with credit for the time she had already served.
In a closing argument on Jan. 18 at the trial, Ricks’ defense attorney Virginia Banks told the jury, “This should have been a Canadian County case. Right before Christmas (of 2021), they got an emergency custody order (in Canadian County.) The (DHS) worker did know there was domestic violence in the home.
“She does what she’s supposed to do. She’s in Georgia (at the time). Mom is charged with stealing her own children. Was there anything malicious about this?
“Yes, there’s guns in there (the truck.) She never used a gun. There was never any evidence they intended to use a gun.”
But prosecutor Jose Villarreal argued to the jury, “The defendant herself told you at least one of those guns was hers. What was the whole idea of going to the house? To take the children back. These (guns) were chamber-loaded, ready to go. Testimony was given that defendant didn’t point a gun. Why do you need body armor?”
Noting that DHS originally wanted to re-unify the children with their mother, the prosecutor said, “She chose not to,” comply with requirements, but had visitation with the children face-to-face and by zoom meetings.
“The defendant testified (the girl) came to her. Why did (the boy) run into the house and say (the girl) was taken?”
Showing the jury what the defendant and her partner had in their truck, the prosecutor asked, “How about four weapons with Kevlar armor?”
The defendant’s partner, Elijah David Erlebach, 32, of Bowling Green, Mi., who considers himself a sovereign citizen and represented himself at his trial, had already been convicted in November by a Payne County jury that took only 35 minutes to find him guilty of child stealing, possessing guns illegally, and obstructing an officer in rural Stillwater.
Jurors set his penalty at seven years in prison plus a $500 fine for stealing the 6-year-old girl from a foster home, seven years in prison plus a $10,000 fine for possessing guns while child stealing, and a $500 fine for giving an officer an incorrect birthdate and refusing to provide his social security number.
The couple had been arrested by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Secrest about 25 minutes after he was dispatched on a report that a kidnapping had just occurred, court records show.
Ricks told the deputy, “Her kids had been kidnapped and she was taking them back. When I asked Samantha to confirm her kids were wards of the state, Samantha stated she would remain silent. During this time, an AR-15 was located in the truck with a pistol. Both firearms had full magazines and were chamber-loaded,” an affidavit said.
The foster father, who is a reserve deputy with the Sheriff’s Office, and his wife, said that the 6-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy had been playing outside, according to an affidavit.
The girl had been riding her bike when the boy “came running inside screaming that his mother, Samantha, was there,” the affidavit alleged. The boy told his foster mother that the girl had been riding her bike in front of a friend’s house “when Samantha came down the street, grabbed her, threw her into ‘a blue truck’ (Elijah’s truck) and drove off,” the affidavit alleged.
The foster father later learned from the girl that “Samantha told her they were circling back around the neighborhood to grab (the boy) too,” the affidavit alleged. The DHS caseworker confirmed that both children have been in DHS custody and placed in foster care,” with the reserve deputy and his wife since Dec. 22, 2021, the affidavit alleged.
In petitions for emergency protective orders issued on Aug. 9, 2022, against the defendants, the foster mother alleged that the couple were partners, who “had guns and bullet-proof vests — claiming to be sovereign citizens.”
