Wilmington police speaks on Surry County elections official drugging ice cream

I think most everybody in here got uh clarify one

thing on there and really the reason we wanted to

put this together and call call this media availability press

conferences we filled out a lot of questions locally and

from around the state for interviews

It's just not humanly possible to accommodate all those interviews

so that's why we're doing this here today

Um I am Lieutenant Willett the public information officer for

the Wilmington Police Department

I have uh my counterpart in CID Lieutenant Kevin Tully

as well as Captain Rodney Dawson

uh Lieutenant Tully is the Assistant division commander for Criminal

Investigations division

And Captain Ronnie Dawson is our division commander for criminal

investigations

So we'll be I'll be leading this off um

You know we understand that you guys will have some

questions totally understandable

Um that's what you do

Some of the questions we'll be able to answer some

questions we won't be able to answer either because we

don't know the answer yet because this investigation is ongoing

or we're not going to be able to answer just

out of prudence for the criminal justice system in the

case

It's important to remember no one has been tried let

alone convicted in this case

It has still yet to be adjudicated

So therefore we do have to protect the integrity of

the case for the court system

So um as you know I'm gonna correct the date

It doesn't change anything with the case

Uh in the initial release I put out August 8th

An officer was flagged down at the sheets at the

corner of Shipyard Boulevard in Independence

It was actually August 3rd so that's my mistake

Um but on August 3rd and a patrol officer was

flagged down

Uh at the Sheets gas station at the corner of

of Shipyard Boulevard in Independence um and was advised that

Two teenage girls had located some pills in their blizzards

which is as you probably know is an ice cream

product you can get from Dairy Queen

There were paramedics that were already there at the sheets

They weren't specifically called for this incident

In fact that's actually why we believe that they stopped

there

The paramedics checked them out

It did not appear that the juveniles had ingested any

of the foreign substances that were located in their ice

creams

The officer confiscated the pills

A presumptive field test was conducted on those pills

We'll talk about that here in a little bit too

if you have questions

The field test is presumptive in nature

It's not a Laboratory test that comes later

That is in progress right now as we speak

Based on the presumptive tests the totality of everything going

on

Safe to say one thing led to another

The report was taken

That report was forwarded up to our criminal investigations division

which any report that has follow-up factors is forwarded up

to them

A detective

Began investigating the case

Obviously that involves going to the scene of the crime

talking to those involved

During that investigation surveillance video was discovered and handed over

to the Wilmington Police Department

It clearly shows Mr

Yakley placing the pills in the ice cream

Um based on that other other things discovered in the

investigation uh that that detective pursued charges against Mr

Mr

Oakley

It was on the twenty-sixth

That he came to the police station and was taken

into custody and those warrants that have been taken out

and were served and then he was transported to the

jail

River County Detention Center

He was given a $100,000 secured bond by a magistrate

and was able to post bond and is currently out

on bail right now

Uh that's kind of where we're at right now

Um I think most of that information is probably already

known

Uh I know uh various outlets have obtained court paperwork

through the clerk clerk's office's public record and gleaned other

information there

So if there are any questions you guys have um

I'll try to answer them and I also have my

help over here uh that can potentially answer or clarify

anything that you may be curious about

I'll open it up

I think I probably know the answer but will you

guys be releasing that footage Uh no we're not gonna

release it

Uh we're gonna the case has to go to court

and once it goes to court and it's presented as

as evidence and the case is adjudicated um there's a

potential then

But no we won't be releasing it prior

Have you guys found exactly where we got the pills

from Uh I don't believe so

Like the source No

No

Are you all able to uh say what type of

narcotics were found Do you Kevin do you wanna kind

of the pills that come on up here so they

can

The pills that were received that night were tested in

a field test which

Is not conclusive

It just gives the officer an idea of what we

could be um

Dealing with especially for narcotics or poison or anything like

that

So the presumptive test showed that it had the same

compounds as other drugs

It may very well not be those drugs when it

comes back from a lab um so that's that's where

we are right now

So for us to say

It's not absolute uh as to what it was um

it definitely was a pill because it was wet

The markings weren't uh readable so you know we're not

gonna jump to conclusions

We only listed the type of

Uh Drugs that were I think released in the warrant

because that's what they tested for in the street but

it may be

So the the the street the street field tests basically

are designed to test for compounds that make up illegal

narcotics or narcotics in general

So it it indicates the compounds the chemical compounds are

there

So there's no question you know we're we're talking about

drugs here

It's just Getting to the point where it's isolated identifying

exactly what drugs are there um that's in progress right

now with the lab

Would it have been a a lethal dose Hard to

say hard to say

I uh not being a medical professional um and not

knowing specifics you know how different folks metabolize things

I I really can't say whether it would be lethal

or not

Um there there was not

Uh a a huge amount and I know that's kind

of a broad term there but yeah I mean it

it wasn't we're talking one pill per per container

So and I don't know what the milligrams come up

to be or anything like that

Again a lot of that stuff's gonna depend on the

lab findings

Just to confirm something you said earlier you said you

believe Mr

Duly stopped at sheets because paramedics were already present there

I believe so

So I believe I believe the young ladies that are

involved in this case when they discovered the pills um

they became very concerned and emotional and I believe the

16 year old involved was driving and uh right now

it looks like that

Due to concerns fear panic if you will um made

the decision to pull in there

So we we we think that decision was probably made

by the juveniles to go to the gas station since

they saw an an ambulance or paramedic vehicle there

So if uh Yokley is from Surrey County do you

all know why he was out here in Wilmington Uh

we believe he has a a residence here

Yeah so um I I don't know about his residential

status in Surrey County but we we do know he's

he's a resident of New or he's a resident of

New County as well

We had heard he's got a bit of a criminal

history

Can y'all elaborate on that I'm I'm actually not familiar

I haven't run his criminal history

I'm not familiar with with that

Have you spoke to the family Or the girls To

go for interview OK yeah so the females involved were

up in the

Of the girls not necessarily being

I didn't I didn't go deep into that

Um where so

We know one juvenile is a step granddaughter

Well at least he

he referred to him but the other one is correct

yeah

I don't know if you're able to elaborate what did

he have to say about about this Uh I don't

know uh myself and I can't I can't find out

elaborate on that

Yeah

What else The parents have they said anything Not that

I'm aware of

Our our investigators have been in contact with the family

um and spoken to them but again that that would

be something in confidence between them

So at the time that these two teenagers flagged down

um you know someone did they have any inclination that

it was their potentially their grandfather It didn't appear so

initially

So when they they went to the sheets because they

saw the EMS vehicle there it was actually the paramedics

that flagged the officer down

Um in conjunction with the juveniles that were there uh

the officer happened to be in the area

So it all kind of happened rapidly and quickly but

yeah

And did any of the girls expressed concerns um you

know if this with his behavior is this the first

time that something like this has happened or did they

feel any sort of way At this time we don't

know

Um and I can tell you based on what I

I've been informed or what I've been told is that

the um The girls were very upset

Um they were very upset very concerned panicked uh and

of course that was this incident but as far as

like indications of any other past behavior or anything um

that I you know I can't go into that if

that's been expressed or not

And just anecdotally I mean this is kind of a

wild case

I mean have you ever seen anything like this Um

we've seen cases before where people have have put um

drugs in people's drinks or food um

I mean yeah it's it's happened before and it does

happen uh just based on my experience um I I

this is the first time that I know of

Where it's been like this kind of dynamic with a

family member but that's certainly not to say you know

it's never happened before

That's just based on my experience

It's not an everyday occurrence you know typically when you

think of people putting something in someone's drink you know

you're you're traditionally thinking downtown or you know a roof

if you will or something like that and that could

be a completely different scenario but uh yeah I mean

as far as in my experience um

Family member wise

It's the first I can think of as I'm standing

up here but it's again certainly not to say it's

never happened before

Were they all driving together Yes yeah they were all

in uh Mr

Oakley's vehicle

Did he place the pills in the drinks at the

Dairy Queen Yes

Can you elaborate on how you can feel that

Um I don't know how well I so I know

in the video just to kind of summarize it he

can be seen placing uh something on the counter and

it's pretty apparent that when the employees make the drinks

um you know he's trying to observe if anybody's observing

him

And uh and that's when the items are are placed

in the the blizzards or drinks or however you want

to editorialize it but yeah

And when you guys went back to that Dairy Queen

and I assumed asked you know what did they see

him doing anything Did they ever see anything No they

they didn't give us any indication that they picked up

on any suspicious behavior

They missed it I mean basically

I mean which is to be expected from what I

understand it was around closing time um then maybe 4

employees there I think

Um so it was around closing time they're closing up

shop they're doing their thing you know they're they're making

ice cream so they're not necessarily on guard you know

to watch what a customer's doing

So it's it's definitely not on them um and there

was obviously an effort by Mr

Oakley to try and conceal his behavior so

So this mostly occurred occurred at night Uh what what

time in the evening of this remained in the car

the whole time so it was a situation where there

wasn't around

Right so he ordered

Uh all the all the uh Surveillance footage that they

have from several different angles

and at no time we believe that they have anything

to do with this case

Yeah if anything regardless of how this case is adjudicated

Dairy Queen and was collateral damage based on somebody else's

behavior

What else Is there anything you guys need me to

bring up specifically or And it kind of covers that

Cooper

That's that's the only way I could get you down

here man

I guess is there anything can you say about you

know where the kids are I'm assuming they're with their

parents

Um yeah I don't I'm not sure

They're safe um but you know I mean that's obviously

a priority

Uh any anytime a juvenile is the victim of a

crime or exposed to a crime or anything like that

uh Health and Human Services commonly referred to as DSS

becomes involved and you know obviously the child or juvenile's

welfare is something that's paramount regardless of the case

So um you know they're

Their well-being is looked after by us along with partners

at TSS

No he made bond the day of his arrest

He posted it was a $100,000 secured bond and he

bonded out

And to make sure that I'm being ignorant here that

I'm gonna if we're not talking ice cream that this

was put in we're talking slurpee like a like a

dream

Uh it's it's ice cream

It's like a really thick milkshake

Yeah it's a a a blizzard

So anybody that frequents Dairy Queen you know if they're

familiar with the blizzard it's like it's a milkshake you

eat with a spoon yeah

What are your next steps um now moving forward in

the investigation So basically looking into any aspect that could

that could um branch off of this investigation any kind

of behaviors that we can discover that led up to

this incident um and during the incident uh obviously there's

the lab aspect to this um our our partners with

the sheriff's office lab are the ones processing uh the

the pills

So that's obviously a part of it

Um there's obviously a lot of will be a lot

of conference that our investigators will have with the district

attorney's office

So um you know even in and this isn't just

unique to this case

Anytime there's a case uh of varying degree of of

severity uh even after once there's arrest even after the

arrests it's very common for the investigation to go to

continue on

So it's not like you know arrest is made the

books closed and we wait for court

So there's a lot of loose ends we we tie

up um a lot of post-in interviews or or additional

interviews that are conducted uh just things like that

Nothing that will really change where we're already at

If anything it'll just build on the case

It's hard to say

I mean I I don't I don't wanna I don't

wanna throw a timeline out there and kind of like

make anybody feel like they're closed within um the the

local lab here is more than capable excuse me more

than capable of handling this request and um the turnaround

usually is quicker than it is at the state lab

which is just because the state lab North Carolina State

lab handles North Carolina and they have a huge workload

So the lab here is capable of doing the exact

same tests and the turnaround is is typically a lot

quicker

Um so it won't be real long but I mean

it's gonna take them a little bit of time to

do what they need to do

But not as long as as it would if we

we sent it out to the state lab

Again just because the state lab's workload is is heavy

I know nobody's been convicted yet

We want to basically establish that but if there is

a conviction here he's looking at some pretty serious time

I would think

Uh potentially um yeah somebody at the district attorney's office

could probably consult you better on that but you know

um it depends on what level he's convicted at and

prior history or anything like that but uh it it

is safe to say yes that there there could absolutely

be time uh

A a sentence that require active active time

That is correct

Probably ask the DA or look on the courts but

do you know when his first court appears I so

his first appearance based on the felony charges would have

been Wednesday if I'm not mistaken the day after his

charge

So anytime anyone's charged with a felony they'll have a

felony first appearance which is typically the next day um

especially if they're arrested later in the day

So that has already occurred

I'm not I I don't know when his next uh

court appearance will be

It it is online it should be online

I just haven't looked at it

And then just to get this correct um August 3rd

was when uh the that is correct

That is correct

In the initial statement I released I said August 8th

um that's our mistake

It's it's August 3rd was when this initially happened and

then the investigation carried through to

The 2 I mean really the investigation is ongoing now

but he was taken into custody on August 26th

And just to confirm the sushis were both female Yes

Is there any particular reason why um the public was

notified uh you know a few weeks after the incident

Compared to like other incidents where a press release would

come out you know

Well it was because of his arrest

So we typically you know most there's a so there's

a lot that goes on in Wilmington right Um like

any other city or size

So there there there really wouldn't be a reason um

especially in this case you know if it was an

unknown um

Honestly it can do more harm than good and putting

it out there and say hey something happened and we

don't know what's going on

Um it was relatively quick in this investigation that we

developed Mr

Oakley's a suspect uh and and of course that is

we're definitely not gonna advertise that um you know we

don't wanna

We want to make sure we can gather as much

evidence as we can

So yeah I mean this this wouldn't be one of

those situations where we put out a media release or

or anything like that until the arrest was made

What else Let let me prove my full ignorance

Can I get you to repeat both first and last

name and you're dealing with the world's worst speller

Can I get you spell first Mine OK

I was about to give you somebody else's name here

uh

I'm gonna give no I'm just kidding

Uh my first name is Greg G R E G

Uh my last name is Willett W I L L

E T T

you're right sir

Yeah that's all right Lieutenant

Yeah and everybody likes to drop a T on my

last name or add an S two T's that's it

Yes

Just to clarify as well was it the granddaughter that

was driving or was it the friends This stepgranddaughter she's

16

That's correct

So it was a stepgranddaughter and then her friend correct

Yeah

Uh is the friend also 16 15

What else So the step-granddaughter was what age is stepgranddaughter

is 16 and the friend was 15

I I think we've covered it so if it's just

anything else I mean you guys

Feel like you need to get on on record

I mean obviously there'll be more developments in this case

as we go on as it as it naturally progresses

um

But as of today I mean that's that's pretty much

everything

Where we're at

I mean you guys know as you guys know the

majority of the case

I mean what you don't know we've got to keep

concealed but it's really y'all have the meat and potatoes

of it honestly

Good

All right I appreciate you guys coming

Thank you very much

Yeah it was a terrorist attack

No I'm just kidding

I was there yeah you were there

Oh can you grab it for

Thank you

You're welcome

See you

It's good to see you doing well