
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Drumright woman, who is currently in federal custody, pleaded guilty Friday in Payne County District Court to possessing a chainsaw that was reportedly stolen from a Cushing couple on Thanksgiving Day in 2021.
As part of a plea agreement with the prosecution, Kendra N. Shelton Kirkpatrick, 45, who previously lived in Stroud, was ordered to serve seven and one-half years of probation in her Payne County case — after her release from federal custody that is expected to be in March of 2025.
In court here Friday, District Judge Phillip Corley ordered Kirkpatrick, who had already served 180 days in the Payne County Jail, to pay $1,000 restitution, a $500 fine and $100 to the victims’ compensation fund along with court costs, in addition to performing 80 hours of community service, having a substance abuse evaluation, following any recommended treatment, submitting a DNA sample, and enrolling in Work Force Oklahoma.
According to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers, on Nov. 29, 2021, Deputy David Barnes responded to a rural Cushing location where a woman reported that a John Deere Gator had been taken from an open front storage shed southeast of her residence.
“She further reported that there was approximately $800 in fencing supplies and material in the back of the Gator that included a Stihl MS 250 chainsaw and DeWalt drill and Impact driver. (She) stated the suspect also took a Stihl MS 170 chainsaw and another Stihl MS 250 chainsaw from the same shed.
“(She) stated the items were taken on Thanksgiving Day when there was no one at the residence,” the affidavit said. She suspected that a relative and the relative’s boyfriend had taken the property, the affidavit alleged.
“On Monday, Nov. 6, 2021, I learned that Kendra Kirkpatrick pawned a Stihl MS 250 chainsaw at 33 Pawn,” on Highway 33 in Perkins at 1:27 pm on Dec. 4, 2021, the sheriff’s investigator wrote in his affidavit.
“I was able to run that serial number through Stihl USA, and it was purchased and registered to the victim’s boyfriend,” the investigator wrote in his affidavit. The woman said that particular chainsaw was stolen with the Gator when it was taken, the affidavit said. Her boyfriend said, “he uses the chainsaw on his farm and is farm equipment,” the affidavit said.
“On Dec. 6, 2021, I placed a hold on the chainsaw at the 33 Pawn and requested video from the store,” which showed Kirkpatrick and her boyfriend in the pawn shop together,” the investigator alleged in his affidavit.
Her boyfriend, Jeremiah Roy Valenzuela, 41, of Stroud, carried the chainsaw in and around the store, according to the video, the affidavit alleged.
Valenzuela placed it on the counter where the owner of 33 Pawn looked at it and bought it from the couple, the affidavit alleged.
“Kendra is the one that completes the pawn shop paperwork and signed that she has owned the chainsaw for six months,” the affidavit said.
According to Canadian County court records, in 2021 she had been placed on five years of probation for passing a forged instrument in El Reno. Also in 2021, she was placed on two years of probation under a deferred sentence for possessing stolen property and endeavoring to manufacture or possess a drug, both in Lincoln County, court records show.
Valenzuela, who is also currently in federal custody, has been scheduled to appear in Payne County District Court on Aug. 6 on a charge of possessing the stolen chainsaw. Valenzuela had been released from state prison in 2018 after serving about one and one-half years of two concurrent five-year sentences for drug possession in Cushing in 2016 and drunk driving in Lincoln County in 2013, state Department of Corrections records show. Valenzuela also served about seven months of a two-year prison term for domestic assault and battery in 2016 in Oklahoma County, DOC records show. Valenzuela also was convicted of drunk driving in 2008 in Tulsa County for which he was given two years of probation, DOC records show.