By Patti Weaver

 

  (Stillwater, Okla.) — A Yale man accused of stealing $2,355 worth of copper tubing from his former employer’s property in rural Glencoe has been ordered to appear in Payne County District Court on Feb. 1 with an attorney to represent him on a grand larceny charge.
    Blake Matthew Hennessey, 33, was arrested at his apartment on Dec. 20 by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Patricia Benavidez, who subsequently interviewed him in jail, according to her affidavit.
    Asked how he knew the victim, Hennessey said that he worked for him about two years ago, but claimed he hadn’t been on the property for about two years, the affidavit alleged.
    “I presented pictures to him showing an individual on the property with a wagon and bicycle. He then admitted to being on the property to steal copper,” the deputy alleged in her affidavit.
    Asked about a trail camera that was missing, Hennessey “denied having messed with or taken the camera. At this time, Blake stated he needed to speak with a lawyer, and the interview was concluded, and he was returned to the Payne County Jail,” the deputy wrote in her affidavit.
    Hennessey was released from jail the next day when he posed $10,000 bail and was subsequently arraigned without an attorney on Dec. 28, court records show.
    The deputy had been sent to the rural Glencoe property on Dec. 18 on a report of theft of wire tubing containing copper, according to her affidavit.
    The owner had placed trail cameras on his property and said, “he believed the individual who could possibly be stealing the wire is Blake Hennessey who used to work for him,” the affidavit alleged.
    One camera was missing, but another still had the SD card in it, the affidavit said. The owner said, “the individual who stole the wire also built a fire; when I went to look at the fire, I located a CarMax lip balm tube and noticed an SD laying in the ground near the fire,” the deputy alleged in her affidavit.
    Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers “was able to pull pictures from both SD cards,” the affidavit alleged. On one picture, Hennessey “has the camera and is manipulating it,” the affidavit alleged.
    If convicted of grand larceny, Hennessey could be given up to a two-year prison term and a $1,000 fine, court records show.