A 28-year-old Angleton man charged with stealing cattle from Baseball Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan and 12 other ranchers pleaded guilty to cattle theft charges in Fort Bend County on Monday and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Jerome Heath Novak, who confessed to rustling 289 head of cattle in eight Texas counties over a nine-month span, was arrested about a year ago in Brazoria County for stealing 17 cows and 30 calves from Ryan’s China Grove Ranch in Rosharon.
Novak has not yet gone to court on the Brazoria County charges, but went before Fort Bend County 268th District Court Judge Brady Elliott on Monday, pled guilty to cattle theft charges, paid $10,000 in restitution and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Assistant Fort Bend County District Attorney Mike Elliott said Novak confessed to stealing 28 head of cattle from Pete Vacek of Needville, a cousin of District Court Judge Clifford Vacek. Also stolen was a bull belonging to another Needville rancher, which was with Vacek’s herd when stolen.
“Even though it may not be the horse and buggy days, we’re still not going to tolerate cattle theft in Fort Bend County,” Mike Elliott said. “Steal cattle – go to prison.”
He said Novak won’t report to prison until September, by which time cases in Brazoria and other counties are expected to be disposed of. Mike Elliott said Novak pleaded guilty and was sentenced to similar five-year prison sentences in Grimes and Houston counties.
The sentences will be served concurrently, however, Mike Eilliott said parole board members are likely to “treat it more harshly” because charges came from multiple counties in the case.
Texas Rangers Sgt. Jeff Cook, who assisted in an investigation that included agents for the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, said Novak apparently was able to steal the cattle by going out to pastures at night with a bucket of sweet feed.
The cattle would follow him to an area where a temporary fence was put up, enclosing the cattle, which were then sent up a chute into a waiting truck.
According to a press release from the cattle raisers association, Novak was arrested in June 2006 after 10 calves, including one with “unusual scars,” were stolen from a Navasota sale barn.
“The calf had a bunch of scars all over him from an accident where he was hung up underneath a feed trough,” said Tommy Johnson, a special ranger with the cattle raisers association who worked the Novak investigation. “An order-buyer recognized the calf when it was taken to a sale in Groesbeck and knew it had been stolen.”
Johnson traced the calf back to the Navasota barn, where he was able to get the license plate number on the “drive-in ticket” at the sale barn. He said the plate was traced to Novak.
Johnson ran the license plate number against an association database in the organization’s Fort Worth headquarters, and was able to obtain documents detailing information about numerous cattle sold by Novak. The details and dates of sale matched up against descriptions of stolen cattle and the dates of the thefts, the association said in its press release.
Novak cooperated and helped investigators recover 93 head of cattle, including 14 that Mike Elliott said belonged to Pete Vacek.
According to the cattle raisers association Novak confessed to the thefts on videotape, and formal charges were brought against him in Fort Bend, Brazoria, Harris, Galveston, Austin, Grimes, Houston and Walker counties.
