By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Perkins man, who admitted he got a motorcycle posted on Facebook with a $3,500 bad check, has been given a one-year jail term followed by nine years of probation with extensive conditions including paying $3,500 in restitution for fraud.
Justin Wayne Murray, 40, was ordered by Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler at his sentencing last week to pay his child support and the cost of his incarceration, as well as undergo a mental health evaluation and follow its recommendations.
Two years ago, Murray had been placed on seven years’ probation with an order to pay $15,250 total restitution at $200 per month for passing four forged checks in 2017 in Payne County, court records show.
In Murray’s latest case, a Stillwater couple reported on July 1 that they had been given a bogus check by Murray after putting their 2008 Yamaha V Star on Facebook for sale on May 25, according to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Henninger.
The woman said that Murray test-drove the motorcycle and gave her husband a check for $3,500 to buy it, the affidavit said.
Within the next few days, her husband went to his bank to cash the check, the affidavit said.
“They received the money in full and told me it was because they already had that much money in their bank account,” but were later notified the check was written on a closed account, the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
The woman said “she got in contact with Justin (Murray) and he told them he would bring over the cash that evening,” for the motorcycle, but he did not show up, the affidavit said. After contacting Murray for a week to tell him to bring the money or the motorcycle, Murray said, “someone had taken the motorcycle from him,” the affidavit said.
The couple still hold the title to the motorcycle, the affidavit said.
At the time, Murray was already on probation for passing a $7,000 forged check on April 24, 2017, to Jim Phillips Cars and Trucks in Cushing; a $2,000 forged check on July 31, 2017, to 33 Pawn in Perkins; a $5,500 forged check on Sept. 6, 2017, to Payne County Bank in Perkins; and an $18,897 forged check on Sept, 8, 2017, to Yamaha of Stillwater.
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