Farrell woman sentenced for stealing $10K from WWII veteran

A Farrell woman has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $10,000 from a 99-year-old military veteran from Brookfield.

The sentence was handed down Thursday to Felicia Splitstone, 35, who was convicted earlier of charges including theft from a protected class, receiving stolen property, and forgery. She is set to be sentenced following a pre-sentencing investigation. Splitstone was also ordered to return the money she stole.

According to a police report, Splitstone worked as a caretaker for the elderly man between September and December 2023. Police say the family noticed inconsistencies in the victim's signature on some checks and suspected her of taking the checkbook while working.

Police say five checks were made out to Splitstone and a sixth was made out to Cortland Industrial, a company Splitstone rents from. The checks totaled $4,450.

Splitstone last cared for the victim on December 21, 2023, and police say all checks were dated after that day.

In February 2024, the victim told police that a couple of his credit cards were used without his permission with purchases totaling $5,882.99. The purchases were made from companies like Amazon, DoorDash, Playstation, and Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite).

Police say the credit cards were kept in the same place as his checkbook.

In all, the purchases totaled $9,899.04 between the checks and credit card purchases.

Police say Splitstone eventually admitted to forging the victim's signature and using his credit cards.

Splitstone has been in the Trumbull County Jail since her arrest in July.