
By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A convicted felon on probation for pointing a shotgun at a Stillwater couple has been accused of possessing a loaded assault rifle while he was sleeping in a van in an apartment parking lot on S. Perkins Road.
Nathan Leon Langley, 33, of Weatherford, has been jailed on $20,000 bail pending a Feb. 8 preliminary hearing on a charge of possessing a firearm after a former felony conviction, which carries a penalty of one to 10 years in prison on conviction.
Two Stillwater police officers were sent to the 1800 block of S. Perkins Road at 3:42 am on Dec. 21, 2020, on a report that a suspicious man, who had been in and out of an apartment there, was now sleeping in a van in the parking lot, an affidavit alleged.
Stillwater Police Officer Damian Neiswanger alleged in an affidavit, “As I walked up to the vehicle, I noticed that there was an AR-15 sitting next to the male on his right side. I then un holstered my duty weapon and began knocking on the driver’s door to get the male’s attention. The male woke up and I told him to put his hands in the air and not to move.”
After getting him out of the van and handcuffing him, “I sat the male on the ground and asked him if he had any other weapons on his person. The male said that he did not, and I located a large knife on his right side,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
When the man was asked if he knew who lived in the apartment, “at first he said he did not and then he said it was just a friend,” the affidavit alleged.
After looking at the man’s identification, “I then cleared the AR-15 and rendered it safe. The AR-15 was magazine loaded as well as chambered loaded,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
“I asked Nathan what he was doing here, and he said that he was just sleeping because he was tired,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
“I told Nathan that being that he was a convicted felon and was in possession of a firearm I would be searching the rest of the vehicle for more firearms,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
In the back of the van, the officer found a purse that had a gold bag containing two hypodermic needles and coin baggies, two of which had a substance consistent with heroin, the affidavit alleged. A police scanner was found in the center console of the van, the affidavit alleged.
The AR-15 had been reported as stolen to Oklahoma State University police, the affidavit alleged.
Five months earlier, Langley had pleaded guilty to pointing a shotgun at a Stillwater couple and threatening to shoot them on May 18, 2020, court records show.
As part of a plea bargain in which a charge of breaking into the couple’s home was dismissed by the prosecution, Langley was placed on five years’ probation except 90 days in the Payne County Jail, court records show.
The male victim, who said “he only knew Langley as someone who goes by ’90s Nate or Nate 90,"” found a picture of him on Facebook that police matched with a photo of Langley, an affidavit said. After his arrest in that case, a chamber loaded Mossberg pump shotgun was found in the back seat area of Langley’s pickup, which had a stolen license plate, an affidavit alleged.
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