By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A man caught on video burglarizing a Stillwater house on Feb. 1 has been ordered to pay $3,059 in restitution plus $1,510 in assessments along with court costs, as well as undergo random drug tests and perform 100 hours of community service, as conditions of a five-year probationary sentence.
Daniel Westin Aldridge, 32, who told a judge he would live in Stillwater with a relative on his release from jail where he had been held for two months, must also pay $500 in fines plus court costs for possessing methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in Payne County on Feb. 21.
Aldridge pleaded guilty to all of his charges before Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler, who sentenced him last week in accordance with a plea bargain with the prosecution.
The owner of the burglarized house said “he had received videos on his phone from a motion-activated camera inside his property,” Stillwater Police Officer Elliot Blakey wrote in an affidavit.
“He does not live in the house, but said his mother-in-law occasionally stays in the house when she is in town. Otherwise, the house is primarily used for storage at this time,” the affidavit said.
The officer was shown a series of videos of the owner’s house taken from 9:49 p.m. to 10:12 p.m. on Feb.1 that showed a white man with a beard and a distinctive tattoo appearing to be a name or word on the right side of his neck, the affidavit said.
“He was holding a flashlight in his mouth and was rummaging through items in the living room. His face is clearly seen on the video before he looks at the camera and eventually stuffs the camera into a bag and leaves with it,” the affidavit said.
“The only other thing missing from inside the house was an old Sager laptop,” about 13 years old, the affidavit said.
“The garage appeared to have quickly been ransacked and tools and various parts and trash were strewn all over the floor,” the affidavit said.
“There was also a shed in the backyard that had been gone through,” by the burglar who apparently took a pink bicycle, which the owner located a block north with a flat rear tire, the affidavit said.
Stillwater Police Sgt. David Duncan said “he recognized the suspect and had recently contacted him in an alleyway near Cooper’s locksmith,” whom he positively identified as Aldridge, the affidavit said.
“I pulled up a photo from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections website and found a mugshot of Daniel,” with a tattoo on the right side of his neck that said Aldridge, the Stillwater officer wrote in his affidavit.
“I then pulled up a recent photo of Daniel (Aldridge) off of Facebook from August of 2018,” the Stillwater officer wrote in his affidavit.
According to the DOC website, Aldridge had been charged in Caddo County when he lived in Apache with drug possession in 2014 for which he was placed on 10 years of probation in 2015 under a deferred sentence.
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