Kansas cattle rustler who stole and sold dozens of cattle faces new charges

A cattle rustler who stole and sold dozens of cattle in southeast Kansas and neighboring states faces new charges from an old case, authorities said.

Anthony Whittley, 28, of rural Parsons, was charged in Cherokee County District Court in connection to a previous case of cattle rustling. Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves announced the case in a news release on Thursday.

Online logs for the Cherokee County Jail show he was booked on May 19 and released May 22. Charges listed in inmate records include criminal trespass and felony theft. His bond had been set at $65,000.

Whittley and co-defendant Jasmine Boone were convicted in federal court in Oklahoma after stealing cattle from Cherokee County and selling them in Oklahoma City. Whittley now faces state charges in connection to a separate case that happened at around the same time.

He is suspected of stealing another eight head of cattle from an area north of Columbus in November 2018. Those cattle were sold at a livestock auction in Benton County, Arkansas. The sheriff said he requested the new charges after Whittley was released from federal custody.

“It’s important he be held accountable for each theft he committed in every jurisdiction, which is why we felt it was necessary, despite he being federally convicted of one occurrence in Cherokee County, that he also be charged in state court with the other alleged crime he committed,” Groves said in a statement.

Federal court documents show Whittley was connected to four cases of rustling and held accountable for the theft and sale of 57 cattle, as well as selling 33 mortgaged cattle that he bought with a loan from the Farm Service Agency.

The federal case — filed in the U.S. District Court for western Oklahoma — stemmed from when Whittley and Boone stole 17 head of cattle from a pasture south of Columbus on Dec. 11, 2018. They took the livestock to the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City. They were arrested after a fake sale organized by livestock investigators with the Kansas attorney general’s office and Oklahoma agriculture authorities.

Investigators later determined Whittley and Boone were involved in several other cases of selling stolen cattle. Three additional cases were included in a plea deal in which Whittley agreed to repay the victims.

He pleaded guilty to transportation of stolen livestock. A second charge of conspiracy to sell livestock stolen in interstate commerce was dismissed as part of a plea deal.

He faced up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

In March, the judge ordered him to pay nearly $45,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to “time served,” meaning he was credited with the approximately 15 months he spent in jail since his arrest and will not have to serve additional time in prison for that case. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and must pay a $100 special assessment, but no fine.

His defense attorney wrote in court documents that Whittley’s crime was “apparently motivated by ... financial difficulties,” but the father of two young children “has an excellent skill as a powerline technician, and can make good money.”

“The sooner he can get back to work in the community, the sooner the victims of the scheme will be compensated for their monetary losses,” the lawyer wrote.

Boone, the partner in crime, also pleaded guilty and received a sentence of time served. She is jointly responsible with Whittley for about $29,000 of the restitution.

The Cherokee County owner of the 17 cattle sold in the fake sale is to get $1,000 in restitution for the out-of-pocket costs to recover the animals.

Another Cherokee County victim is to get nearly $6,000 after 10 cattle were stolen on or around Nov. 29, 2018, and sold in Benton County, Arkansas.

Two Pittsburg men are to receive more than $17,000 in restitution for 21 cattle stolen from Crawford County and sold in Tulsa on or around Sept. 21, 2018.

More than $5,000 in restitution is to go to victims in LeFlore County, Oklahoma, where nine cattle were stolen before they were sold in Springfield, Missouri. The crimes happened on or around Nov. 18, 2018.

The Farm Service Agency is to receive more than $15,000 for 32 cows and one bull that were mortgaged property of the federal farm credit agency office in Independence. Whittley had bought the livestock with a Farm Service Agency loan and later sold them.

The plea agreement states that other prosecuting agencies, including the Cherokee County Attorney’s Office, indicated charges would not be filed for the cases that had restitution included in the plea deal. It does not protect against prosecution for any crime not specifically described in the court document, and it states elsewhere that the agreement is not binding on any other prosecuting agency.

Groves, the Cherokee County sheriff, said Whittley is suspected of being involved in “multiple livestock thefts from across the region for a period spanning from at least 2017 to 2018.” The new charges in Cherokee County District Court appear to be from a case not mentioned in the federal plea agreement.

This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 5:30 AM.