MH woman serving prison sentence returned to Baxter County to face additional charges

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A Mountain Home woman currently serving a prison sentence for stealing and forging checks at area businesses has been returned to Baxter County to face charges from a different case in which she allegedly stole credit cards and used them to make purchases. Thirty-three-year-old Jessica Ruth Whitson was returned to the Baxter County Detention Center recently.

According to the probable cause affidavit in the case, law enforcement was notified by the victim in December, 2020 of unusual activity on her credit card. The victim was out of town and it’s believed Whitson had given the victim’s brother a ride, returned to the residence when no one was there and stole several items including a purse and wallet which contained the credit cards, a collection of silver dollars, other cash and a jacket.

Video surveillance from two of the stores where Whitson allegedly made purchases with the stolen cards showed a woman using them matching Whitson’s description. A clerk at one of the stores was able to identify Whitson as using one of the cards when law enforcement showed her a picture of Whitson.

Whitson is facing six counts of theft of property, five counts of forgery in the second degree and one count of residential burglary.

Whitson was sentenced to three years in prison in April, 2019 after she pled guilty to five counts of felony forgery, five counts of misdemeanor theft of property and a misdemeanor count of attempted theft of property. In that case, Whitson stole a backpack which contained checks. She then wrote several checks at area businesses to pay for purchases.

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