A woman who raised money and accepted donations from others for her son’s medical expenses and then used a little over half of it on unrelated purchases was sentenced to seven years of probation.
Tonya Hawkins pleaded guilty to obtaining money by false pretenses in September. Her attorney, Ryan Umina, asked for probation. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Chad Noel did not oppose the alternative sentence.
“Did she make a mistake in the framing of fundraising efforts? Absolutely,” Umina said. “Should she be in prison? Absolutely not.”
Hawkins tearfully apologized to anyone she hurt, said she took responsibility and asked for probation so, “I can still be a mom and raise two kids that mean the world to me.”
Judge Phillip Gaujot sentenced Hawkins to the statutory sentence of one to 10 years in prison, but suspended it in lieu of seven years on probation. She was also ordered to pay restitution.
About 120 victim impact requests were sent out to people and organizations who donated to Hawkins, Noel said. From those statements $9,360 was already requested in restitution. Another $2,086 in restitution is coming and 39 responses still need to be turned in. Gaujot ordered the restitution be held for 60 days, giving time for additional claims to be made.
Through various fundraising efforts, including a poker run and 5K, about $33,000 was raised and deposited into a “transplant fund” at United Bank, Monongalia County Sheriff’s Detective J. Wilhelm testified.
The investigation was triggered by a person who was concerned about the fundraising effort because Hawkins’ son was playing sports and, with the condition she was raising money for, he shouldn’t have been able to, Wilhelm said.
Some non-medical expenses the investigation turned up were the purchase of a firearm at Cabella’s, a $1,000 loan to a friend that was never paid back, a car payment, a supercharger kit and fender flares, Wilhelm said.
While about two-thirds of the deposits into the account were checks, many of the withdrawals were cash and the purchases can’t be traced, Wilhelm said. The account was overdrawn when the investigation started.
Some of the purchases were discovered by reviewing 141,000 pages of communications between Hawkins and other people on Facebook, then matching conversations to withdrawals and prices, Wilhelm said.
At some point, prior to the investigation beginning, Hawkins had a conversation where she said she was worried about the account getting investigated and how she could end up in jail, Wilhelm testified.
Noel said in an interview with Wilhelm, Hawkins admitted that about 55%-60% of the money was not spent on its intended purpose.
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