Man receives deferred sentence, fine in cattle thefts
BY KENDRICK MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
A Haskell man pleaded guilty to theft charges in connection with stolen livestock from a Muskogee County rancher last September.
Joseph Tanner Harper, 20, was sentenced to a pair of five-year deferred sentences and fined $5,000 by a Muskogee County Court judge last Friday after he was convicted of stealing 18 head of cattle and a stock trailer, according to the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Association.
Harper also pleaded guilty to stealing a pickup in Wagoner County, court records show.
Harper and 25-year-old Billy Chris Barnett III, also of Haskell, were arrested Sept. 27 in connection with the cattle thefts, authorities said.
Barnett was sentenced to six years in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and a 12-year suspended sentence, records show.
“It’s our goal to see these types of investigations brought to successful conclusions so that victims can move forward with their lives,” said TSCA Special Ranger John Cummings about the thefts that occurred in Wagoner, Muskogee and Okmulgee counties.
“Now that both suspects have been charged and sentenced, we expect this to serve as a deterrent for future crimes in this area.”
