Joseph Cheatham
(DOC file photo)
By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — A Yale man, who was released from prison two years ago after serving time for assault with a dangerous weapon in Tulsa, has been ordered to appear in court on May 26 on a charge accusing him of breaking into an unlocked vehicle in Cushing from which a .45 caliber pistol was reportedly stolen on March 12.
Joseph Carl Cheatham, 35, who was freed on $15,000 bond from the Payne County Jail on March 19, could be given as much as two life sentences if convicted of third-degree burglary and being a felon in possession of a firearm, if convicted after three prior felony convictions in Tulsa County. He also could be given a one-year jail term if convicted of possessing a stolen gun.
Cheatham, who previously lived in Cushing, was arrested at 11:58 am on March 18 at his Yale residence where a search warrant was served with the assistance of Yale Police Chief Phillip Kelly, Cushing Deputy Police Chief Nick Myers and the Stillwater Special Projects team, according to an affidavit by Cushing Police Detective Jerrod Livergood.
“On March 13, multiple auto burglaries occurred and were reported to the Cushing Police Department in a concentrated area primarily on Lakeview Drive in the 700 and 800 block,” the affidavit said.
One of the reporting parties had surveillance footage of a man parking in front of her house at 12:19 am on March 13, turning off his vehicle’s lights, walking up to vehicles in her driveway, checking doors and leaving when he found they were locked, as well as a spotlight illuminating her driveway, the affidavit alleged.
The man then ran to her next-door neighbors and entered one of their cars briefly before going back to his car that appeared to be a silver Chevy HHR with black rims, before driving south out of view, the affidavit alleged.
The video from the first residence showed a silver Chevy HHR with black rims and a man with a distinct band style tattoo wrapped round his right bicep, who was wearing what appeared to be a blue beanie cap, glasses, a Nike short sleeved t-shirt, dark pants, and light shoes, the affidavit alleged.
Another woman, who lived about five houses down the block, reported that someone driving a silver Chevy HHR had broken into her unlocked vehicle at 11:50 pm on March 12 and stolen a Kimber 1911 .45 caliber firearm, the affidavit alleged.
After Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers provided officers with the suspect’s address, the Yale police chief saw Cheatham’s vehicle, a silver Chevy HHR parked at his residence and Cheatham come outside in a beanie like one in the footage, the affidavit alleged.
“I also reviewed the footage and believe the male from the footage to be Cheatham due to his overall appearance, right arm band tattoo, and identical vehicle,” which had been pulled over on a traffic stop by a Cushing officer in 2025, the Cushing detective wrote in his affidavit.
When the detective arrived at Cheatham’s residence, he was advised that Cheatham “told Officer Sara Reynolds under Miranda that the gun was in the bedroom in the nightstand ‘on my side closer to the window’ in the top drawer,” his affidavit alleged.
During a search at the Yale residence, multiple items were recovered “including a Kimber 1911 .45 caliber pistol with the matching serial number that was reported as stolen,” from the unlocked vehicle in Cushing on Lakeview Drive, the affidavit alleged.
“The search also revealed a shirt, shoes, and beanie cap that was similar to the one he wore in the surveillance footage,” the affidavit alleged.
According to Tulsa County court records, Cheatham had been convicted at a jury trial in March of 2015 of two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in Tulsa in 2014 and given two concurrent 20-year prison terms of which he served about nine years.
Chatham had also served about two years of a five-year sentence for eluding a Tulsa police officer in 2013, and 372 days of a four-year sentence for two counts of concealing stolen property in Bixby in 2011, court records show.
