(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater man has avoided a jury trial next week in Payne County by accepting a plea bargain for a 14-year prison term for drug possession near a park consecutive to a six-year prison term he is serving for drug possession near another park, both in Stillwater in 2013.
Due to his three prior felony convictions, Jeffery Scott Stevenson, 29, could have received a life prison term if convicted by a jury on his second drug charge in Payne County.
Stevenson had been found guilty in Custer County of drug distribution within 2,000 feet of a school in 2007, and also marijuana possession with intent to distribute in 2005, for which he had been given two concurrent five-year suspended sentences in 2008, court records show.
In his latest drug case in which he was scheduled to stand trial March 30 on a charge of possession of methamphetamine, oxycodone and diazepam with intent to distribute near a park, Stevenson pleaded guilty last week to a reduced charge — eliminating the element of intent to distribute the drugs.
Before approving the plea bargain, Payne County Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler advised Stevenson that he must serve 50 percent of his 14-year sentence before becoming eligible for credits or parole.
In that case, Stevenson had been arrested at a motel on Sixth Street by Stillwater Police Officer Royce Stephens, who was serving a search warrant with other officers on Oct. 25, 2013.
“Several items of drugs and drug paraphernalia were observed in plain view in the room to include a large bag of marijuana and a methamphetamine pipe,” the officer’s affidavit said.
When Stevenson was searched, police found a bag in his front pants pocket that contained a small bag with .4 grams of methamphetamine, another bag with three 60 mg. Oxycontin tablets, an unused small bag and a corner of a bag containing nine coarse possibly hand-pressed unmarked tablets, the affidavit said.
When the officer obtained a second search warrant to include cell phones, “a phone found to belong to Stevenson was located and found to contain numerous text messages detailing illegal drug transactions, as well as messages indicating that Stevenson was awaiting the arrival of a third party to re-supply him with methamphetamine for sale,” the affidavit said.
Seven months prior to that incident, Stevenson had been arrested with another man for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute near another park on March 8, 2013, court records show.
In that earlier case, Stevenson was originally placed on 15 years’ probation in August 2013, but that was changed a year later to a six-year prison term for probation violation, court records show. The judge ordered that he be given drug treatment in prison.
Since October, Stevenson has been serving that prison term at the Bill Johnson Drug Offender Work Camp in Alva, state Department of Corrections records show.
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