By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — An ex-convict from Stroud has been accused of possessing a car stolen from Eskridge Chevrolet in Guthrie and a gun stolen from a woman in Muskogee, as well as having methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, all in the parking lot of a convenience store in Cushing.
Dalton Dash Brown, 36, who got out of prison eight months ago, has been ordered held in the Payne County Jail on $10,000 bail pending his arraignment with an attorney on Thursday on the four-count charge.
Due to his criminal record, Brown could be given as much as a life prison term if convicted of the felony charge of possessing a stolen car after two or more prior felony convictions. If convicted of his other counts that are misdemeanors, Brown could be given two and one-half years in jail plus $3,000 in fines.
Brown was arrested at 11:15 pm on March 3, about an hour after Cushing Police Officer Carson Watts “turned into the parking lot of 2001 E. Main St., Kum & Go, to get a drink,” according to his affidavit.
“I saw a maroon Dodge Charger that matched the description of a stolen vehicle out of Guthrie,” possibly being driven by Brown, the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit.
“I then saw Dalton Brown, whom I know from previous contacts, exit the store. Dalton told me that he did not have any weapons and I began to pat search him for weapons. While pat searching Dalton, I could feel a glass smoking pipe in his left front pocket and ammunition rounds in his right front pocket,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
Cushing Police Officer Cody Carpenter, who arrived at the scene, “then told me that he could see a firearm laying in plain view in the car. We opened the car door and I could see the handgrip of a pistol inside a leopard print purse in the front passenger floorboard.
“I retrieved the firearm and found it had a full magazine and a round in the chamber. I opened the driver’s side door and I could see an extended firearm magazine in the driver’s side door compartment,” the officer alleged in his affidavit. The gun, a Taurus G3C 9 mm came back as being stolen in Muskogee, the affidavit alleged.
“Dalton began to tell me that he was given permission to drive the car by a man named ‘Dave,’ but he was not sure of his last name. I asked Dalton if he knew how to get in touch with Dave and he said ‘no,"” but that his relative would know, the officer alleged in his affidavit.
“Dalton denied knowing the car was stolen and said, ‘Why would I come to a store in Cushing with a stolen car?’ Dalton then explained that he had met Dave in the past and recently had seen him at the Cherry Street Maverick and began to have a conversation about the car.
“Dalton said he asked Dave if he could drive the car and was given permission. I asked Dalton how he was supposed to get in touch with Dave to return the car and he was not able to give an answer. I asked Dalton if there was a firearm inside the car due to him having ammunition in his pocket, and he told me that he did not know because it was not his car; he just found the ammunition laying in the car and put it inside his pocket,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
The officer then spoke to Brown’s relative, who was on scene, and asked if he knew Dave’s last name, but Brown’s relative said he was not sure although he knew how to get in touch with him, but could not give information about him, the affidavit alleged.
“An inventory of the car was completed for it to be impounded. I retrieved the extended magazine and found it to be loaded with an unknown amount of ammunition and was then seized. I also found what appeared to be a fake used car dealership tag that was dated 3-07-21 in the front passenger floorboard, which was seized. Since the tag displayed on the Charger did not belong to the car, I seized it as evidence,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
Brown and and his front-seat passenger, Stephanie Cullum, 40, of Stroud, were then arrested, the affidavit said. “During the book-in process, I found three glass smoking pipes with residue wrapped in a green bandana in Stephanie’s purse,” the officer alleged in his affidavit. She was charged with a misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia and ordered to appear in court on Thursday, court records show.
“Dalton and Stephanie’s cellular phones, which were located inside the car, were seized as evidence for future investigation into other possible crimes they are alleged suspects in,” the Cushing officer wrote in his affidavit.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Brown had been released from prison on July 22, 2020, after serving about five years of seven 15-year concurrent sentences from Lincoln County for being a felon in possession of a firearm, using a weapon in a felony, and drug possession in 2015, and on another occasion in 2015 for drug possession, using an offensive weapon in a felony, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and possessing a stolen vehicle.
Brown had previously served one year and nine months of two concurrent five-year prison terms for two second-degree burglaries in Payne County in 2011 that he was given in September of 2015, DOC records show. Brown had also served one year and seven months of two concurrent five-year prison terms for possession of stolen property and malicious injury of property in Lincoln County in 2010 that he was given in May of 2015, DOC records show.
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