Texas man charged in connection with cattle theft scheme in North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — Clint Clifford Sicking, 40, from Muenster, Texas, is the second person charged in connection to a $780,000 scheme involving the theft of livestock, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

On Aug. 2, 25-year-old William Dalton Edwards pled guilty for his participation in the scheme.

Sicking and Edwards are accused of conspiring with another person to steal from livestock markets and sale barns in Iredell County, Cleveland County, Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia between April 2018 and October 2022.

Authorities say Sicking and Edwards knowingly wrote false checks as payment for cattle. The livestock would then be taken out of state to sell in Texas and Oklahoma.

According to court documents, the duo fraudulently obtained more than 900 head of cattle which caused more than $780,000 in losses to barns in North Carolina. Despite the supposed fraud, the family-owned livestock markets in North Carolina still had to pay the farmers and ranchers.

Sicking is charged with conspiring to defraud the United States and to violate the laws of the United States. Officials say he’s also charged with:

• Bank fraud
• Theft of livestock
• 2 counts of interstate transportation of stolen livestock
• 2 counts of sale receipt of stolen livestock

The maximum sentence for selling livestock is five years in prison. Meanwhile, the maximum sentence for brand fraud is 30 years in prison.

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