Tom Fink
Staff Reporter
CLAREMORE —
An ongoing Rogers County series of burglary investigations continues to net sheriff’s deputies a “mass of evidence” and “stolen property,” according to Rogers County Sheriff’s office spokesperson Johnny O’Mara.
Last week, rural Claremore resident Jason Conrad Lewis was arrested near Foyil on burglary-related charges when officers found items reported in a burglary report as missing were found in his residence.
Following his arrest and the subsequent search of his residence, a “multitude” of items believed stolen were recovered, including several electronics, including DVD players and iPods, jewelry, and more.
As the investigation into Lewis’s activities continues, investigators continue to uncover more items believed stolen by Lewis, O’Mara said.
“Working with detectives from the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, a location in the Skiatook area was searched which uncovered a cache of stolen property — a cache of stolen property which we believe Lewis was responsible for the theft of,” O’Mara said.
Investigators serving a search warrant at the Skiatook location found what resulted in “two truckloads” of property stolen in multiple burglaries, O’Mara said.
Deputies have begun the process of evidence inventory of the property recovered. During the raid in Skiatook, Tulsa County deputies took into custody Patrick Medlin on indications he had been accepting stolen items from Lewis. Some of the recovered property included horse saddles, gun parts, motorcycle parts and other items which Rogers County investigators have determined were taken in burglaries in Rogers County.
The amount of property recovered represents a large number of burglary victims.
“We’re very glad to be able to get this property back to the owners,” Walton said.
“These burglaries have been hitting us hard,” said Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton. “The work done to get these cases to the point they’re at now has been tremendous and has taken the best efforts of everyone who has been following the leads.”
Walton said the process of getting the recovered property back to the rightful owners has just begun and will take some time to complete.
In another case, Brandy Juanita Spurgeon, 26, and her boyfriend Rocky Ward, 25, were arrested last week in connection with the burglary investigations of a trailer manufacturing business and transmission shop in the Chelsea area.
“Ward became a person of interest (in the transmission shop and trailer manufacturer burglaries) while we were working another burglary case,” said Rogers County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny O’Mara. “Patrol deputy Cory Lawhorn and Sergeant Tandy Reeder obtained admissions from Spurgeon and boyfriend Ward in which they admitted their involvement in the burglaries.”
Ward was arrested on charges of knowingly concealing stolen property, two charges of burglary in the second degree, larceny of a motor vehicle, and possession of CDS. Ward was arrested on charges of knowingly concealing stolen property.
