(STILLWATER) – A Yale man who admitted breaking into 108 Auto Salvage northeast of Stillwater must spend his nights and weekends in jail for 55 days beginning Monday, a Payne County judge ruled Friday.
When Matthew Lee Hale, 20, completes his incarceration term in the Payne County Jail under the alternative sentencing program, he will be on probation for three years.
Since Hale was given a deferred sentence Friday by Associate District Judge Robert Murphy Jr., he will not have a criminal record if he successfully completes his probationary period.
Prosecutor Kathy Thomas said that she sought a six-month jail term for Hale, followed by four and one-half years of probation under a suspended sentence, while the defendant asked for a deferred sentence without any jail time.
Hale and his co-defendant, Christopher Lance Hewitt, 19, of Yale, both had pleaded guilty to burglarizing the auto salvage by forcing open the door with a pry bar on July 5. Hewitt is due to be sentenced on June 13 by Murphy.
The pair were arrested at 5:15 a.m. July 5 by the Payne County Sheriff’s Office and freed the next day on $5,000 bond each, Sheriff Noel Bagwell said.
Payne County Sheriff’s Deputies Paul Fox and Ken Moore were responding to a call about two youths climbing a microwave tower south of Glencoe at 3 a.m. July 5, when they cracked the burglary, Bagwell said.
About $2,500 worth of property stolen from the auto salvage was recovered from the youths’ residences, Bagwell said.
Hewitt took Deputy Moore to his apartment and gave him a rifle, two car stereos and a change bucket containing about $158, Bagwell said.
Two computers, a car stereo and a palm PC were recovered from Hale’s house, Bagwell said.
Hewitt, then 18, and Hale, then 19, were both cooperative, Bagwell said.
Second-degree burglary is a felony carrying a penalty of two to seven years in prison, court records show.
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