An Alva man is charged with five felonies after he allegedly provided marijuana to four juvenile males under age 18.

According to court documents, on April 18 at 5:13 p.m. Alva Police Officer Kaleb Keplinger received a report of juveniles fighting in the vicinity of First and Locust Streets. He arrived and saw a juvenile male lying on the ground next to a house on the north side of Locust. The juvenile was visibly upset, shaking and crying and saying he had been beat up.

Officer Blake Trekell talked to the boy while Keplinger talked to the boy’s grandmother. She said she had stepped outside to investigate a disturbance and witnessed her grandson fighting with an individual in the front yard. She said the altercation started because of marijuana.

Keplinger then talked to the juvenile who said he had been with three juvenile friends and Chandler Starks in the front yard of his grandmother’s house. The juvenile’s father’s girlfriend said when they heard the police were coming, they left in a maroon Buick owned by one of the juveniles. An ambulance was called for the juvenile.

Eventually police made contact with the other three juveniles. They said Starks was dropped off in the area of Park and Church Streets. Keplinger questioned them and had them show their tongues which showed evidence of their having smoke marijuana, according to the affidavit.

At approximately 6:16 p.m. Woods County Deputy Honeyman and Officer Trekell located Starks in a drainage ditch by Bud Rose Park in the area of Logan and Church. Keplinger was notified by radio and told Starks was fleeing on foot.

Trekell said when he and Honeyman showed up at property owned by Starks’ father, they saw Starks running west away from the property. They pursued a short distance before chasing Starks into a chain link fence where they were able to catch up with him and place him in custody at approximately 6:17 p.m.

After Keplinger took Starks to the Woods County Jail, he went to the hospital to talk to the juvenile who had been injured in the fight. With his guardian present, the boy told Keplinger what had happened. He said he and the others had driven around most of the day and then went to Waynoka to the marijuana dispensary where Starks purchased medical marijuana using his medical marijuana card. The juvenile said they returned to Alva and drove around for a couple of hours and smoked marijuana in the car.

The juvenile said he went inside the residence and came back outside and asked Starks why he got ripped off with the marijuana. He said he asked Starks to leave. Instead, he said Starks called him a punk and began striking the juvenile’s dog repeatedly in the nose and head. The boy said he began striking Starks through the open window of the car, spilling the marijuana Starks had in is lap. One of the other juveniles broke up the fight.

The juvenile said his grandmother came out while on the phone to his father and asked Starks and the others to leave. Starks began to call her names. The juvenile’s father said over the phone he heard the language being used toward his mother and headed to the house.

The juvenile said that when his father arrived, Starks and one of the other boys began to call his father names. Then the father’s girlfriend came out and announced the cops were coming. So Starks and the other four got into the car and left.

Starks was booked into the Woods County Jail on several charges. In the jail, Trekell told Starks there was no reason to run, and according to the affidavit Starks replied, “You’re a cop, I’m a criminal so there is the reason.”

After being advised of his rights, Starks agreed to a video recorded interview. He said he went to Waynoka to purchase marijuana from the dispensary for himself and the others to consume. He said that the juvenile who was involved in the fight helped buy the marijuana, providing $30. Starks said he supplied $10 and bought the marijuana using his medical marijuana card. When asked if he knew the ages of the four boys, Starks gave their ages clearly acknowledging they were minors.

Chandler Reese Starks, 19, of Alva, has been charged with four counts of causing, aiding, abetting a minor in a drug crime. He has also been charged with distribution of controlled dangerous substance (marijuana). All five charges are felonies. The first four charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years incarceration and a fine up to $200,000. The distribution charge is punishable by imprisonment for five years to life or a fine of up to $20,000, or both fine and imprisonment.