Muldrow Man Arrested and Charged in Burglary

An investigation into the theft of a Muldrow man’s power tools led to the Aug. 26 arrest of Anthony Micheal Francis, 30.

Francis, also of Muldrow, was charged with second-degree burglary in the case, records show.

According to a police report, officers responded to the reported burglary and contacted the homeowner, Bill Ligon, who said his home had been severely damaged in an Aug. 3 fire. The fire was suspicious, he said, because it appeared to have started in two different places. 

Ligon told police that when he returned to the property Aug. 5 for the first time since the fire, he realized there were several items missing from the house and the shop building nearby.

Among the missing items were a Stihl chainsaw, a Porter & Cable cordless drill and an impact drill along with a Porter & Cable drill bit set.

Earlier in the day, the responding officer in Ligon’s case had helped Roland police officers serve a warrant at an apartment in Roland. One of the items discovered while searching the apartment was a Stihl chainsaw that no one would claim. The chainsaw matched Ligon’s description.

A later search of the apartment turned up a Porter & Cable drill, an impact drill and a set of drill bits, which Ligon positively identified as his.

When investigators contacted the person renting the Roland apartment on Aug. 5 they were told that someone named Kyle Hanna had brought the equipment to the home and that Hanna had asked another man there to pawn the chainsaw earlier but that he refused.

In an Aug. 6 interview, Hanna told police he obtained the property after trading the equipment for methamphetamine with a man in the Nicut area. Hanna refused to name the man but said he had recently learned the man was a sex offender and was on the run from the Sheriff’s Department. When asked again if it was Francis, he nodded yes.

Francis wasn’t hard to find: He had been arrested the day before on unrelated warrants. He later admitted to stealing the items and said he traded the items to Hanna for meth. 

On Aug. 25, officers trying to locate Francis talked with his sister, who told them there was someone in a tent in the woods behind the residence. Officers then found the tent. It contained two people, Francis and Janae Sevenstar of Muldrow. 

Both were ordered out of the tent and arrested, Francis on outstanding warrants and Sevenstar was charged with harboring a fugitive.

Records reveal that Francis was convicted of second-degree rape in 2014 and was convicted in 2015 and 2016 of failure to comply with sex offender registration. The burglary charge is punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Laura Brown, KXMX Staff Writer

For more news stories stay tuned to The MIX 105.1 or visit www.kxmx.com