Girard woman gets probation for stealing money from elderly businessman

YOUNGSTOWN — A 50-year-old Girard woman has been sentenced to five years’ probation, including 100 hours of community service, for stealing money from an elderly businessman, but her legal troubles are not over.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence today in a criminal case, in which Spano had pleaded no contest in January to a reduced theft charge and agreed to make $15,000 in restitution to the businessman’s estate.

On March 10, Judge Krichbaum ordered Key Bank to forfeit $15,000 from one of Spano’s accounts to the estate of Fred D. Hightower, a Boardman insurance agent who died Dec. 3, 2008.

J. Michael Thompson, an assistant county prosecutor, confirmed that the bank had issued a check in that amount to the Hightower estate.

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