Hillary M. Struble, 28, admitted to taking 27 iPhones from a local retailer in order to support her opiate addiction in a plea hearing on Friday, January 12, 2018, in the Upshur County Circuit Court. Senior Alyssa Godwin commented, “That’s awful. She should get help if she is addicted that badly, and she should not have done that [stolen the phones].”
She plead guilty of grand larceny and forgery, both felony charges, to Judge Kurt Hall. By entering pleas to information, Struble waived case presentations before the grand
jury.
The pleas will be temporarily set aside, giving Struble three years to successfully complete a supervised probation period and pay back about $20,000 in restitution, under the terms of a plea agreement reached with prosecuting attorney David Godwin. Struble will then return to court after the three years are up, where she will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of fraudulent schemes and be sentenced by the court.
Junior Brittany Crites stated, “I believe she should have a harsher punishment than three years of probation and paying $20,000 in restitution because she has an addiction. Stealing iPhones to support that is wrong. It’s basically saying that if she or anyone else who has an addiction steals things to support that addiction, then it’s okay. Why should someone be given an easy punishment for that sort of crime?”
According to what Struble told Judge Hall, she was looking for a way to obtain opiate pills in November of 2016, so she stole the phones. Struble also said that a December 27, 2016 forgery case was to obtain money to buy pills.
She and her co-defendant in the forgery case, Evan Wright, 24, were arrested seven months ago for two counts of forgery and writing checks on the account of Robert and Tamera Wright.
Struble plead guilty to one of the counts on Friday and admitted to forging a check on
Wright’s account for $170. Godwin said, “Well, at least she acknowledges that she is wrong in doing that. I mean, it takes guts to admit to stealing so many things for an addiction, but forging a check is just another add on that’s wrong too.”
During the hearing, no reference was made to the status of Wright’s case.
The total amount of restitution for the forgery case was named at $1,825.49. An agreement was made in which Struble would be responsible for half that restitution along with the full $18,973.76 in restitution for the iPhone 6 models taken from the Sprint store in
Buckhannon.
Struble has told the court since her arrest that she successfully completed a 90-day drug
treatment program in the southern part of the state and attended Narcotics Anonymous to complete steps for that program. Senior Hannah Hunt added, “I think it’s good that she’s taking steps to get her life back on track after the crazy thing she did.” Judge Hall has noted that Struble had no previous criminal record and had 3 ½ years of college education.
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