(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater woman was arraigned Tuesday on a felony charge alleging she fraudulently attempted to sell on Craigslist more than $50,000 worth of cattle, which she did not own, for $17,500 by using her tablet computer and a desktop computer at the OSU library.
Emily Marie Asbery, 21, who allegedly used the name of Mary Janison on Craigslist, was arrested on Aug. 27 on a two-count felony charge filed by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. She was released Tuesday on $2,000 bail and ordered to return to court on Sept. 8, court records show.
If convicted of attempting to obtain property by trick or deception and illegally using a computer in the case investigated by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Asbery could be given a 15-year prison term.
ODAFF Chief Agent Jerry Flowers wrote in an affidavit that on July 18 he met an Okmulgee County man who reported he had been the victim of Asbery, also known as Mary Janison, attempting to obtain $17,500 from him regarding the sale of cattle that she said she owned.
The victim said that he later determined she did not own the cattle, the affidavit alleged.
The victim said “he had seen on several occasions and beginning approximately July 1, 2014, an ad on Craigslist advertising the sale of cattle listing a person named Mary Janison as a point of contact to buy the cattle,” the affidavit alleged.
The victim said “Janison told him the cattle were hers and she had inherited them after her grandfather had died in Tennessee,” the affidavit alleged.
“Janison advertised the cattle were going to be shipped to Stillwater, Oklahoma, and that when they arrived, (the victim) could meet her in Stillwater and buy them,” the affidavit alleged.
On July 15, the Okmulgee County man met Asbery, also known as Mary Janison, in Stillwater, and was shown over 40 head of cattle on ranch property — which she said was her cousin’s land — that were delivered there from Tennessee and all were for sale for $17,500, the affidavit alleged.
The victim said he “knew the cattle were worth more than $50,000 and became very suspicious of Janison and did not believe the suspect had the authority to sell the cattle,” so he reported what he believed to be a crime, the affidavit alleged.
On July 18, the chief agent met with Asbery, also known as Mary Janison, “and recorded our conversation and her confession,” the affidavit alleged.
Asbery said that she placed an ad on Craigslist about the first week in July “advertising she had cattle for sale that had been inherited from her dead grandfather,” the affidavit alleged.
She said that the Okmulgee County man called her and made a deal to look at the cattle in Stillwater, the affidavit alleged.
Asbery said she took the Okmulgee County man “to some ranch property located in Payne County that had some cattle on it — Asbery said the cattle she was showing did not belong to her and she didn’t know whose cattle they were, but represented them as her cattle to sell,” the affidavit alleged.
Asbery said she offered the cattle for sale to the Okmulgee County man for $17,500 and had placed “the bogus ad attempting to sell the cattle on Craigslist using her tablet computer as well as as using a desktop computer at the OSU college library,” the affidavit alleged.
Asbery said that if the Okmulgee County man had given her $17,500 for the cattle, “she would have kept the money knowing the cattle would have been removed from the ranch property,” the affidavit alleged.
“Asbery admitted she came up with this scam of placing the ad on Craigslist listing the bogus sale of cattle,” the affidavit alleged.
The investigator located the real owner of the cattle in Stillwater, and “he identified the cattle that were being offered for sale by Asbery were in fact his cattle,” the affidavit alleged.
The cattle owner said “he does not know Emily Asbery, aka Mary Janison, and that she did not have permission to sell his cattle,” the affidavit alleged.***
