(Stillwater, Okla.) – A Stillwater man accused of trying to force open the front door of a Cushing woman’s apartment — while she was inside pushing her weight against the door to shut and lock it — has been ordered to appear in court on Feb. 10 for a preliminary hearing on an attempted first-degree burglary charge.
At the time of the 2:45 a.m. Sept. 28, 2014, alleged incident at Southgate Apartments in Cushing, the defendant Tyrell Duvonn Celestine, 21, was free on bond on a charge of abusing an ex-girlfriend six days earlier in Stillwater, court records show.
Cushing Police Officer Justin Sappington, who was sent to the apartment complex in the home invasion case, said when he saw the Cushing woman, she “was crying and literally shaking from being so scared,” according to his affidavit.
She said she was watching movies in her living room when she heard a faint knocking at the front door and looked through the peephole to see a man talking to someone to the east of her apartment, the affidavit said.
She said that when she unlocked the front door to see what the man needed, “she felt the door knob twist in her hand,” the affidavit said.
She said “the man then pushed the door in an attempt to gain access into the residence,” the affidavit said.
She said “she had to put her whole body weight against the door to push it back closed and lock it,” the affidavit said.
She said “there was a brief struggle to get the door re-secured but she was able to do so,” the affidavit said.
She said “she then ran back to her bedroom and called the police department,” the affidavit said. She said “she had observed the suspect before playing basketball in the parking lot of the apartments,” but did not know his name or any of his associates, the affidavit said.
While the officer was talking to the woman, two other Cushing officers contacted Celestine at the corner of Southgate and Will Rogers Streets, the affidavit said.
When Officer Sappington talked to Celestine, who matched the suspect’s description, “Celestine acted somewhat confused and stated that he thought he was on Duck Street in Stillwater and was trying to walk to his grandmother’s house,” the affidavit said.
“Celestine told me he was hanging out with a friend earlier in Stillwater and later he fell asleep, and then woke up in Cushing. Celestine denied that he had taking any illicit drugs, medications, or drank alcohol tonight that would affect his thinking,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
“Celestine told me that a red SUV dropped him off on Southgate Street,” in Cushing, the officer wrote in his affidavit.
“Celestine told me that when we pulled up, an unknown person told him that the police were here and then possibly jumped a fence and fled southbound,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
Celestine could not tell the officer the friend’s name, describe his clothing or the vehicle that dropped them off, or any reason why he was at this specific location, the affidavit alleged.
“Celestine denied being at the Southgate Apartments or attempting to get into anyone’s apartment,” the affidavit said.
Celestine agreed to have four photographs of himself taken by the officer, the affidavit alleged.
When the Cushing woman was asked if she could identify the suspect from a photograph, she said yes, the affidavit said.
Shown photographs of Celestine, she identified him as the man who tried to get into her apartment, the affidavit alleged.
Six days earlier, Celestine had been arrested in Stillwater on an accusation that he abused his ex-girlfriend who already had a broken arm by “grabbing her arm, twisting it, and forcefully ripping a set of car keys from her hand causing a laceration to her finger,” on Sept. 22, 2014, court records show.
The day after his arrest, he was released on $5,000 bond on a misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse, court records show.
That same day, his ex-girlfriend was granted an emergency protective order against Celestine, court records show.
In her petition for a protective order, she wrote “I have been with Tyrell for almost four years and on August 3, he broke my arm. I continued to live there because I had no way to leave. “On Sept. 20, I finally started moving out because of an argument and dispute; he pushed my mom and me, left in my car and went home and he started moving my belongings out of the house.
“I came with the police. He let the air out of my car tires so I couldn’t take my car.
“So I came back on Sept. 21 with the cops again to get the rest of my things and he broke into my car, had my doors open with my stuff messed with and he broke picture frames.
“On Sept. 22 I went to get my car and he grabbed my broken arm and twisted it till I dropped the keys and then I called the cops.
“On the weekend of Sept 13 and 14, he punched me in the back of my head and then head-butted me.
“On Sept. 22 when he twisted my arm I called the police. He was arrested.
“In August when he broke my arm, I stayed with him because I was scared to leave. He would take the cell phone, take the car while I was at work, and he was just at home.
“He has my driver’s license, bank cards, keys, all my belongings and still has them today.
“He would accuse me of cheating while I was at work. He wouldn’t let me do my make-up, my hair, get dressed in cute clothes. I wore baggy clothes all the time.
“Since I’ve left, he has called my phone repeatedly about 2-3 times every two hours he’s been calling – my mom’s phone too frequently.
“He is currently in Stillwater PD and will go to Payne County Jail for domestic abuse that occurred this morning.
“I really need this protective order on him because I am scared of what he will do to me now that I’ve finally left and because he got arrested. “All of his family is cyber-bullying, writing things about me and what they are going to do to me. I’m just scared,” she wrote in her petition for a protective order that was granted.
Court records show that in November 2013, Celestine was one of three men charged with a home invasion in Stillwater. After the alleged victims, three men, failed to appear to testify at a preliminary hearing, the case was dismissed against Celestine and his co-defendants, court records show.
***
