STILLWATER — An ex-convict from Cushing was given a six-year prison term Monday for burglarizing a vehicle while he was on parole from seven years’ incarceration for stealing a lawn mower in Cushing.
Gary Don Cook Sr., 26, who already had been sent to prison twice by District Judge Donald Worthington in 2002 and 2005, had four prior felony convictions for property crimes in Payne County, court records show.
As part of Cook’s plea bargain for his latest prison term, the state agreed not to file several other burglary cases, prosecutor Kathy Thomas told Worthington in court Monday.
Cook was first sent to prison at age 21 when he was ordered into the Regimented Inmate Discipline (RID) boot camp program for breaking into the Sonic Drive-In in Cushing in 2001 and burglarizing a Ripley school building in 2002, court records show.
After being incarcerated for about five months in the RID program, he was given a five-year suspended sentence for those two burglaries, but his probation was revoked in 2005 after he was convicted of unauthorized use of a vehicle in 2003 and stealing the lawn mower from a house in 2004, court records show.
His criminal record also includes domestic abuse in Cushing for which he was initially given probation in 2002, but that was revoked in 2005 to one year in jail concurrent to his prison term.
In one of his latest cases, on which he was originally scheduled to stand trial this month, Cook was originally charged with felony domestic abuse in Cushing, attempting to elude and driving under suspension, court records show.
As part of his plea bargain Monday, the domestic abuse charge was dropped and he pleaded guilty to the other two misdemeanor counts for which he was given concurrent one-year jail terms by Worthington.
Cook also pleaded guilty Monday to the Nov. 14, 2007, burglary of a vehicle in rural Payne County for which he was given the six-year prison term, and to public intoxication, for which he was given a concurrent 30-day jail term.
Before he was paroled last year, Cook was incarcerated for about two and one-half years of his seven-year sentence for stealing the lawn mower in Cushing, state Department of Corrections records show.
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