DUNCAN – An Asian man accused of murder in a pot farm robbery in Okfuskee County on Jan. 7 is alleged to be the ringleader of a gang that robbed a Stephens County marijuana farm the morning of Jan. 27.
Yi Mun Lee, alias Dennis Dwaine Lee, 51, remained incarcerated May 3 in the Stephens County Jail in lieu of $2.5 million bond. He was arrested March 7 in Dallas at an airport.
Lee and four alleged co-conspirators are charged in Stephens County with first-degree burglary of an occupied residence, larceny of a motor vehicle, conjoint robbery and conspiracy to commit conjoint robbery at Harvest Paradise marijuana farm west of Foster.
Held on $1 million bond each were Justin Javor Stewart, 30, of Waco, Texas, Artist Anthon Stewart, 36, and Ricky Remell Harris, 45, both of Marlin, Texas. A felony warrant for the arrest of Timothy James Evans Jr., 29, also of Marlin, was issued March 6 and bond was set at $500,000. Marlin is about 30 miles southeast of Waco.
Lee’s Oklahoma City attorneys petitioned the court April 23 to reduce his bond, arguing that he is a U.S. citizen; if released from custody he would be “gainfully employed … in the nail salon/manicure business”; Lee would “prefer to reside in New York and travel to court when needed and has the financial means to do so, but can reside in Oklahoma during the pendency of his case”; and “has no criminal history” so far as his legal counselors were aware.
The next day Lee was charged in Okfuskee County District Court with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and armed robbery at the Yao Qian Shu marijuana grow operation near Castle, which is approximately six miles northeast of Okemah. Lee is alleged to have shot Harry Dam, and left him to die, during the robbery of the marijuana farm while accompanied by six co-conspirators.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents reported that although Lee listed an Oklahoma City address, he spent most of his time in Brooklyn, New York.
Apparently a yellow Penske van led to arrests in both cases.
At the rural Foster scene, Stephens County Sheriff’s Office personnel and a translator from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control interviewed six Chinese individuals on Jan. 27. They stated that masked intruders dressed in black clothing entered their unlocked house that morning and bound their hands and feet with duct tape.
The bandits stole a pickup truck, tubs containing approximately 130 pounds of processed marijuana, and six firearms.
Two men who live near the Stephens County marijuana farm reported seeing a yellow Penske van in that vicinity that day.
Lt. Timothy Vann of the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office contacted Penske’s corporate security office in Oklahoma and learned the van was rented in Waco on Jan. 25 and was returned Jan. 27.
The vehicle was rented by the brother of Timothy Evans Jr., who is “blacklisted from Penske,” investigators wrote in a probable-cause affidavit.
Two law enforcement officers said they drove by Evans’ address and copied the license plate information from two vehicles parked at that house. A pickup truck at the residence is registered to a Dairy Queen; through research, Vann learned that Evans was the general manager of a Dairy Queen in Robinson, Texas.
Penske provided GPS data that tracked the yellow van from Waco to a “gentlemen’s club” in south Oklahoma City and then to an Airbnb in Norman, where the suspects stayed Jan. 25-28.
The van arrived at the rural Foster marijuana farm at 7:36 a.m. Jan. 27, and a security camera at a convenience store on state Highway 29 near Elmore City captured footage of the stolen pickup traveling east at 8:59 a.m.
The Penske van left the marijuana grow operation at 10:22 a.m. and passed by the convenience store’s security camera half an hour later, continued on to Interstate 35 and turned south, arriving in Waco at 3:07 p.m.
Found in the Airbnb was a receipt from a Norman Walmart store where clothes were bought. “It is believed that the items purchased from Walmart were the black clothing the suspects wore during the robbery” of the rural Foster pot farm, investigators wrote in their affidavit.
Additionally, labels with the name Harvest Paradise were recovered from the Airbnb trash can, and the doorbell camera at the Airbnb showed the stolen pickup backed into the driveway and later parked next to the curb.
“On the Ring doorbell camera you can see Yi Lee coming and going from the Airbnb on 1/27/2024,” the residence was rented by Yi Lee, and his mobile telephone “was located within the Stephens County area during the armed robbery” that day, the affidavit relates.