Charges continue to mount against a homeless woman who has admitted that she has battled a heroin addiction for more than a year.
Tonya Lynn King, incarcerated since May, now faces additional charges for allegedly forging and cashing checks she has admitted to stealing from a Loyalsock Township man who befriended her by paying some of her "bills," state Trooper Gary Beadle said in an affidavit.
Beadle has charged King, 34, with forging four checks belonging to Richard William Campbell Jr. during the first two weeks of April. The checks allegedly totaled $620.
King, formerly of Dauber Road, Lycoming Township, has admitted "to having a severe addiction to heroin," Beadle said.
"At the peak of her heroin use, King was using one to two bundles of the drug a day. All the money she got from cashing Campbell's checks went to support her addiction," Beadle said.
Campbell, a Loyalsock Township resident, befriended King after the two met at a local church function early last year, Beadle said.
King, claiming she lost her employment, went to Campbell's home on Sand Hill Road more than a dozen times and, each time, Campbell gave her $100 to $150 "to help her out with bills," Beadle said he was told.
The checks that King forged were stolen in a burglary at Campbell's home in April, Beadle said. A television set and camera also were taken in the break-in, Beadle added.
King told investigators she did not know who stole the TV or camera.
"She related that she does not do burglaries," Beadle said.
In this case, Beadle charged her with nine counts of theft, five counts of receiving stolen property and four counts of forgery, and District Judge Gary A. Whiteman increased King's bail by an additional $10,000.
King, who has been incarcerated on two separate counts of driving under the influence of a controlled substance, as well as burglary-related charges, was arraigned Wednesday on one state police charge of forgery.
Police allege King attempted to cash three stolen checks at the Northwest Savings Bank, 815 Westminster Drive, on May 7.
The checks were stolen from Robert D. Smiley's home on Reynolds Road in Woodward Township two days earlier, police said.
King remains jailed in lieu of yet an additional $10,000 bail set in this case.
