Local convicted criminal arrested again

Willie Ford Sr., 52-year-old oft-convicted criminal from Clinton, is facing new charges for allegedly trying to burglarize two Weatherford businesses the night of April 9.
Ford is charged with first-degree burglary of the Lug-A-Jug store at 101 E. Rainey and second-degree burglary of Myers Cleaners at 225 E. Franklin. A female employee at Lug-A-Jug locked herself in the bathroom while she called 911. The charge is first degree if the burglary occurred while the edifice was occupied by another human being and second degree if it was unoccupied.
The two burglaries were charged “after former conviction of two or more felonies.” Specifically, the charge listed nine prior convictions with sentences totaling 93 years in prison plus 27 years suspended.
Prior convictions listed were in 1992 for second-degree burglary; in 1994 for possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony, for escape from preparole conditional supervision, and for robbery with a firearm; in 2005 for two different cases of receiving, possessing and concealing stolen property; in 2008 for false declaration to a pawnbroker; in 2014 for domestic abuse – assault and battery, and domestic abuse by strangulation; and in 2018 for domestic abuse by strangulation. The sentence on that last one was seven years and was handed down Jan. 18, but it was all suspended.
An affidavit of probable cause signed by Weatherford Detective Matt Bartel said Officer Dylan Owens was dispatched at 9:03 p.m. on the 9th to a call from the Lug-A-Jug store. The caller stated that someone was kicking the window in an attempt to break in.
When Owens arrived, he did not see the suspect but saw the broken front window with a large clay pot lying nearby. He then talked with the employee who had hidden in the bathroom and was told that she had closed the store at 9 p.m. and locked the front door.
She said a person had come to the door, kicked on the window and begun hitting it with the clay pot, The affidavit said the would-be intruder saw her and yelled at her to open the (expletive) door. That’s when she said she went to the bathroom and called police.
Afterwards, the affidavit said two cash registers were missing from their usual spots and a four-way tire iron was found inside the front door.
Thirty-six minutes after getting that call, Owens allegedly saw the same subject himself trying to break into Myers Cleaners.
Eric Payne of the Washita County Sheriff’s Office advised Weatherford detectives that the suspect was Ford. Detective Capt. Mike Murley of the Clinton Police Department concurred, both he and Payne saying the defendant’s thumbs are unique in that they’re long like index fingers.
Weatherford Detective Matt Bartel, accompanied by Clinton Detective Ron McLemore, went the next afternoon to the defendant’s residence at 520 E. Side St. Ford told them he had been home by himself the night before and had not been to Weatherford “in a while.”
He also denied being in a picture the officers had from Lug A Jug.
On April 11 Detective Bartel contacted Ford’s probation officer who allegedly identified him in pictures. The employee who had hidden in the bathroom also selected him out of a photo lineup as the individual she had seen trying to break in.